Waterford University discussion

What a **** joke this is for Waterford. Again treated as second class and will be the only city without a real university. SF gave it their full backing despite being in opposition.

I'm saying they should have provided more more scrutiny considering they're in opposition. It's kinda the whole point.

Oh the irony; not enough 'Galway' in NUI Galway. Those Galwegians don't know how lucky & privileged they are.

They'll probably get extra millions in government funding for the name change.

Getting rid of Patrica Mulcahy is a step in the right direction if the TU is to be a sucess. She has been a disgrace as a leader throughout the whole merger process whose main goal seemed to have been to bully and disenfranchise WIT so Carlow could get their way. Hopefully, we can move on, and the new leadership can dismantle to authoritarian leadership structure in Carlow.

And there it is. SETU is now official. Now the fight switches to ensuring everything that was promised is delivered.

The name Waterford now also officially eradicated from 3rd level education.

Phil Hogan must be buzzin

That will probably tell us all we need to know. Surely he announces crystal site or turn the sod on the new engineering building.

If not then I think it will set for the tone for what we have all been saying.

Crystal and engineering building will come no doubt but so much more is needed

Not sure of that Finbar.

The PPP is a five-building bundle (with Galway, Letterkenny, Limerick as well as Carlow and Waterford: https://www.ndfa.ie/project/higher-education-ppp-programme-1), a considerable way through planning and tendering. It is very unlikely to be dumped, but it has lost another year in Government faffing. SETU Waterford, as it is now, has a large engineering faculty and established courses- these cannot be moved more than 45km based on existing employment contracts— I do not know SETU Carlow as well, but they do have engineering staff and again they are outside the magic 45km redeployment zone set down in national wage agreements. I am not sure anyone is sticking their hand in their pockets to fund a duplicate engineering outfit 45 minutes down the road.

The Minister has already indicated that the new Wx campus is a replacement accommodation for the existing Wx footprint which is housed in unsuitable accommodation in the old St Peter's seminary building. What most people do not twig is the capital costs in higher education can be equal to 1 or 2-year payroll for a site, so a €10m building usually has a €10m annual payroll that needs to be met by serious activity to justify its existence. It is hard to see what viable and thus sustainable activities could be grown in Wx, if significant spending is to happen there it needs a watertight plan so that it does not turn into another Tipp Inst or Maynooth KK- the stakes are too big for the region.

The ideas rolling around for creating a sustainable footprint in Wx are- an integrated research business incubation space (like arclabs) built around a smart specialism (environmental tech makes sense with the EPA and Rosslare wind energy hub; agri also makes sense with the dept of ag in Johns Castle), a flexible teaching delivery space for remote and Wx specific delivery (the MBA could work well there) and hot desk spaces for Wx based staff on the Carlow/Waterford campuses- all acorns that could see something more elaborate grow, sustainable wins turning into real and new academic muscle; as well as of course the existing Wx provision. There is also talk of Enniscorthy, New Ross, Kilkenny and Clonmel versions of that kind of a regional platform, each at an appropriate scale and thoughtful specialism linked to the local enterprise eco-system.

But honestly, there is a new sheriff in town, and chances are the complexity of integration focuses all of the available bandwidth before attention turns to new adventures. Who knows.

Its taken over 10 years and this building still hasn't started, I highly doubt its going to be built now in Wexford.

I really hope the new leadership can stand up to the parish pump politicians in Wexford and Kilkenny and make sure as much investment as possible goes into the two main campuses. There has been a long line of small campuses failures across the country especially the ones offering undergraduate courses to school leavers.

The simple truth is that cohort want to go to campuses of scale with all the facilities and services that offers not some small campus in a one-horse town (Wexford not Kilkenny). There is a place for adult ed, springboard and lifelong learning courses in these regional towns but no undergraduate or mainstream masters should be taught outside the two main campuses. The situation in Wexford illustrates this fact with around 75% of the undergraduate students down there transferring to the main campus in Carlow for second year.

I think the demise of the Institute of technology brand is a shame (will there be any IT left?). Maybe having them validated by a Technical NUI/ National Technical University. So you would have had TU, Waterford, Sligo, Carlow, Tralee, Cork, etc.

What rationalizing benefits will the merging of Carlow and Waterford have? Do they need 2 Presidents? Registrars? and are they both going to be running rival courses? duplication?

If SETU is an umbrella, should it not also award degrees that are run in Carlow College? I am sure Kilkenny feels left out, unfortunately, Maynooth pulled out of its Kilkenny campus at St Kieran's which served as an avenue into 3rd level for a lot of non-traditional students such as mature and young mums.

Technical University Of The South East.... TUOTSE pronounced Tootsie ;)

Based on the above, I think it is purely cost saving, while it may incur a cost initially, the overall goal will be to save money.

Think about it SETU (Waterford and Carlow) need 500 million between them for this to be a success so as IoTs we have two institutions looking for approx 250million each.

That is never going to happen, now that SETU exists and the government invest say 200 - 250 million it will be sold as major investment into 3rd level education into the South East.

The other 250 million never comes. Then in future rather than funding two institutions they will be only funding one.

It is the same path the NIHEs went! and the redbricks/polytechnics did in the UK. I think there is a lot of snobbishness an ego thing. I recall DIT graduates had their degrees rubberstamped by Trinity (nice little earner for them).

If it is only a marketing scam to get more foreigners to subsidize Irish students? why bother! let the NUI or an NTUI validate them to give them the label they want.

I like the progression routes RTCs/IoTs provided in the past, from technical qualifications, PLC courses, certs, and diplomas up to Degree and postgraduate. Now it is just a pissing contest only valuing the "higher-level" qualifications.

But Waterford and Carlow could have been doing tailored courses for the industries that serve their areas agri-food, equine, and in the past, the crystal and beet factory

Just listened to it all there. While politicians have started there is no difference between a stand alone Uni and a TU, it is clear from that round table discussion, there is a huge difference, mainly around funding and borrowing etc

Which is crucial to any success.

But nearly all the news stories on the SETU.ie website are Waterford stories, looks like there is a divergence there between who is running those platforms

Those things will go ahead when the other members of SETU are guaranteed their funding.

There are no members of SETU, it is now a joint enterprise.

PPP was promised in 2007,9,17,20; Crystal site was promised on the floor of the Dáil as being a week or two away over a year ago. Both projects are needed to grow UG numbers and halt the brain drain. Another year lost in progressing them is another leaving cert group exported from their homes.

“TU/IoT sector”, I thought TU's were an upgrade from IoT? Just more proof as if it is needed that the whole TU thing is about maintaining the status quo and denying Waterford and the south east it’s fair share of investment, nothing more.

"we’ve been waiting 40 years to get to this stage." What in the name of god are they talking about?

I gree that some of the cpmments are a bit pointed, but given the history, probably justified. The fact remains that Waterford has sought a university for nearly 100 years without any support from other south east counties. The SETU amalgamation is rightly seen as diluting what should have been delivered and which was almost achieved in 2006 to 2008. The research funding chart above tells some of the story. Many people here still think that it will not deliver what is necessary to challenge other regions. There has been a well documented campaign for a university like UL or DCU in Waterford, nrpadly based, with public support for many years. there was no such campaign in evidence to teh best of my knowledge anywhere else in the south east. You are obviously not familiar with the background to the whole issue, but suffice it say that TCD, UCC, UCD, UL and NUIG are merging with no one. At this stage Wexford will get some sprt of campus. How long it will take to develop and how successful it will be remains to be seen.

One for everybody in the audience once again. Satellite Campus's have never worked across the country. We should be building on the main Waterford & Carlow Campus's and fleshing those out, not diluting the offering even further.

I know it's summer but the lack of investment or at least talk of investment is staggering. Not a word on new engineering, crystal site......

Although we got 3.5 million to make the campuses greener! That should close the gap in the education sector!

Agree with all the above, I just felt they might have at least drove on with the new engineering building and try and sell it as a win.

Unfortunately I feel it will definitely plan out as many of us predicted.

Any word on the HQ?