Waterford University discussion

Duplicate post

https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2026/0512/1572947-dundalk-university-college/

DKIT now becomes Dundalk University College..some kick in the teeth for the forced merger fiasco of WIT with IT carlow for SETUp

Remember when they said, there was no other option for WIT.

Dundalk comes under the same funding stream as the TUs and can no call themselves DUC, some craic altogether

It has formed a partnership with Queens University.

They'll be in the same funding stream as TU's but get to maintain their name and change the name from IT to University College

Some of the posts on the Waterford Airport page are very much the same. Childish unawareness and lack of understanding, emanating from a kind of woke leftism, of just how interconnected and interdependent everything, especially business, is in this small world.

ffg have a history of this, this was always gonna happen, they actually dont truly want to upset the structure of our third level institutions, in particular at a university level, we had this from the rtc's to the it's, and now this, so same same, so no surprises!

All very correct, thoughtful and very fair thinking. However, as a Clareman living close to Limerick City, I have seen the enormous wealth of two men transform both the city and indeed the region. Chuck Feeney's 100 million brought a modest third level institute of education to a university with the best campusand facilities in Ireland attracting tens of thousands of young adults from all over the country including Waterford. As for JP McManus' contribution; Adare Manor, the Ryder Cup, Limerick's 5 all Ireland hurling titles and countless health cultural and social facilities plus [quietly] major construction schemes. Even the one project that failed, 30 million into a rugby museum, and poor treatment by the some local politicians didn't faze him. He didn't take the building back into his own ownership in a sulk. Now it's earmarked to a Nation Museum covering the history of women in Ireland!. Imo Waterford is being left behind and if it's a choice between principles and progress maybe it's time to go with progress. My tuppenceworth!

A bit extra on the value of a contribution by a wealthy philanthropist!

04 Jan 2017 7:01 AM

THE FOUNDING president of the University of Limerick, Dr Edward Walsh, has described Chuck Feeney, the Irish-American philanthropist and former secret billionaire who has now signed his final cheque, as "the most remarkable man I have ever met."

Ul received in excess of €170m - with Dr Walsh describing his first introduction to him in the late 1980s as "a wonderful stroke of good fortune". "For many years, UL was the only university in Ireland to receive funding. He was hidden away in the Concert Hall building when it opened, and no one knew him or recognised him'.

"Other people simply couldn't believe how we were in a position to develop a world class concert hall and the first on campus in the country, and that student residences were rising out of the ground, and laboratories were being built, especially in such lean and hungry years. Among the most recent projects to come to fruition, supported by AP, is the science-led Bernal Institute, with AP contributing more than €26 million towards the design of a new building, capital work and the recruitment of academic chairs.

“The total figure gifted by AP to University of Limerick Foundation exceeds €170m and has been transformational to our campus, the city, our region, our country, our students and future generations,” said Mr Cronin. He said that his generosity led to the development of “iconic projects such as the Living Bridge, the Glucksman Library and the Graduate Entry Medical School, to name just a few”. “Through his phenomenal vision the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, established in 1994, has been developed into a world-renowned academy and a global centre of academic and performance excellence, enhancing UL’s role as a major centre of artistic and cultural creativity,” he concluded.

He also provided funding towards the €2m residence for the university’s president’s residence on campus, which was a source of controversy at the time and dubbed ‘lavish’ and ‘extravagant’. Milford Care Centre received some €5.4m from Atlantic Philanthropies over a three-year period. Mary Immaculate College received €407,000 from Atlantic Philanthropies in 2001 for a project to address disruptive pupil behaviour in primary schools in disadvantaged areas.

Is the acquisition of Carlow College by SETU Waterford, with its magnificent building, not another blow to the prospect of the main campus building being located in Waterford City, as should be happening. Or a I missing some detail in this development. The Carlow College building and site offers some potential for future developments that will be difficult to match imo.

Has FF been any better? Between the pair of them we're screwed. The sooner we see the back of Mary Butler and her owner, Michael Martin the better. Cummins might get a full ministry after the next election if FG return to govern. If ye does he needs to grow a pair of balls and deliver for Waterford but I wouldn't be overly optimistic. I don't trust SF to deliver much either but maybe Cullinane might surprise me.

Is the TU project failing?

A recent article went into some detail on the finances but it misses out on a few bits

For one, students and parents still don’t even know what a TU is. Instead of choosing them, more students from the region going to traditional universities, and student numbers are down 10-15% across the TU sector because of it.

Then there's the massive opportunity cost. Think of all the things they could have been doing over the last 10 years if they weren’t using up so much energy just merging. That’s 10 years and €50+ million on the SETU merger that could have been spent directly on the campuses and student experience

The paper's conclusion pretty much sums up the TU mess:

"We conclude that the Irish TU Project has been characterised by financial pressure, the death of regional provision in higher education, mission drift and confused policy making, and that it has failed to meet many key targets."

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/404516982_Is_the_Irish_Technological_University_Project_Failing

It should have been so obvious for the SE to have a chance of competing on an even playing field, WIT should have been made UCW and Carlow IT could have been made into SETU with the HQ in Carlow but no FG namely Hogan could not allow waterford to have its name above the door of a university..politics has failed the South East time and time again

Carlow is 50 minutes by train from a half dozen universities in Dublin. It cant expect to get permission to replicate courses already easily available in Dublin. There was always going to be contention about everything, driven by SE politics, but Carlow needs something different. Saying that though, anything is possible in this cracked country. Carlow is a part of the Carlow/Kilkenny constituency with all the difficulties the latter has for anything here. Post next census, Carlow and Kilkenny may both end up three seaters, with all that that entails.

Personally, I would not count any chickens about anything.

Genuinely feel a standalone NUI for Waterford is a very long way off. Had Waterford remained on its own possibly, depending on the government of the day and ministerial positions.

There would be the possibility in the future SETU becomes a stand alone Uni, that said it would have strong competition from the other TU's and would become even more of a political issue.

While those three combined would have most likely met the criteria, I reckon despite how well WIT was performing we would have ended up the poor relation of such a formation due to the political pull of Dublin and Cork.

While I wasn't happy and still have major concerns over the whole SETU setup. Waterford is still by far streets ahead of Carlow in terms of Research, which is key.

Talk can be talked about both being equal, but Waterford is still streets ahead despite the governments best efforts in keeping it down.

If we get the level of investment that we deserve here in our Waterford campus, then there should be no doubt which campus is the driver of SETU.

Unfortunately even if we get the health one building etc, TUs are still going to struggle for government funding which will hamper any ambitions of becoming an NUI