The Dáil will vote today (Thursday July 8), to establish University campuses in both Thurles and Clonmel.
The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has signed off on an appointed day for the establishment of a Technological University (TU) which will encompass both Tipperary campuses.
‘It is anticipated that the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris, will officially establish the new Technological University on October 1st, says Deputy Michael Lowry.
The country’s newest Technological University will be known as the Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest, while it will also carry the Irish name of Ollscoil Teicneolaíochta na Sionainne: Lár Tíre, An tIarthar Láir.
‘Our Institute in Thurles has travelled a long way’ says Deputy Lowry. As someone who has been involved since the very beginning, I acknowledge that this is due to of the vision, the creativity and the dedication of a totally committed staff. They have has overcome a lot of turbulence and adversity and it gives me the greatest of please to see that they are now on the brink of a new future as an integral part of a new identity and a new plan’ says Deputy Lowry.
‘There is no doubt that this will have a extraordinarily positive effect on the education and enterprise landscape of Tipperary’ he said. ‘It has been proven in many other cases that a local University, producing highly qualified graduates, will enhance the opportunities for inward investment and for job creation’
‘This decision by Minister Harris will ensure that both the Thurles and Clonmel can now offer even greater educational value and opportunity to students from Tipperary and beyond. It will provide a stream of highly qualified graduates who will be of enormous benefit to the economic development of the area going forward’ says Deputy Lowry.
‘This will be transformational for Tipperary. A huge amount of work has been done to make this a reality and I want to thank all the staff in LIT and AIT and, in particular, both Presidents for their leadership. They were united and determined throughout the process and the results of their commitment has now made this plan a reality’
‘To quote Minister Harris during his response to one of my Dail questions in relation to the new Technological University, he stated ‘Just to give you a sense of the scale of this in terms of transformation, under the terms of a new European Universities Initiative, this AIT/LIT consortium will join what is called RUN EU, the Regional University Network in the European Union. This is a way of creating one of several new European Universities capable of transcending languages, borders and disciplines. This is a project that is being worked on at EU level and is expected to be completed by 2024’
