I.T. Tralee and Cork I.T. PROPOSED Merger info

kerry4sam

Just an FYI thread on the PROPOSED Merger:

Feel free to add in any relevant information you would like to share.

Thanks,
kerry4sam

kerry4sam

The proposed Munster Technogical University (MTU) is under investigation by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Dáil spending watchdog.

...

...concerns expressed centred on:

The inadequacy of the mission/statement;
The “insufficiency of the costing of the plan”;
The apparent absence of an adequate risk assessment;
Conditionality and vagueness of the language in in important respects;
The plan “implied an erroneous assumption” that simply achieving TU status would lead to additional research revenue

...

...near unanimous opinion of the meeting was that the proposal should be rejected”.
In rejecting the plan at that stage, HEA board members stressed that the decision be cast in the light of “protecting the reputation of the HEA”.

More/Taken from here.

Thanks,
kerry4sam

kerry4sam

Mod update:

adding in --> Technological Universities Act 2018 <--

and

adding in --> this (merger nears)

Both college's have been working closely together for the last five years to complete the merger and attain university status.

Management at IT Tralee and CIT hope that the merger process will be complete and the MTU will be able to register its first students in September 2019.

Thanks,
kerry4sam

kerry4sam

Mod Update:

Financial setback to the proposed Merger

The Irish Times has previously reported that internal HEA records show “serious concern over the protracted funding crisis” at IT Tralee as well as alarm over the quality of information released by the institute over the scale of the problems.

You can read more here

Thanks,
kerry4sam

invara

(Hi visitor from Waterford here.... and also posted on the Cork spur of this issue.)

I read the panel's report available here: https://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Press-Releases/2019-press-releases/PR19-07-22.html
From my reading of the report, the core finding of the panel was the criteria was not met on two metrics- number of research students and research-active staff. The way this surfaced is uncomfortable- Deloitte put in higher numbers in their report and invited the panel to examine the cases they were uncomfortable with.

The other stuff- budgets, leadership/governance, and longterm plans are subjective, but the bid did not make the cut on the hard criteria. Oh but for the grace of trade unions was the WIT/IT Carlow bid not similarly mauled, as there are significant discomforts over the numbers (why 2015 Taylor report was withdrawn).

The big question is ..... what now? The politicians got what they wanted out of TUs- to stall the growth of ambitious IoTs like Cork and Waterford, DIT got its recognition as being not like the other RTCs-IoTs...
So should Cork and Waterford ask to push on for TU status alone and without the smaller less university like partners? Will the dept reheat it given the funding and political effort? Does anyone care.....
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