New high-tech university to be fourth for Dublin

IRELAND is to get a massive new technological university – the only one that will be able to offer education from apprenticeships to doctorates.

Technological University Dublin will be the capital’s fourth university, and will see the three institutes of technology come together to form the country’s largest college.

There will be more than 28,000 students across the campuses of the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown, Institute of Technology Tallaght, and Dublin Institute of Technology’s new Grangegorman site. Three other consortiums, representing seven ITs, are aiming to be designated as TU: Munster Technological University, Connacht Ulster Alliance, and the Technological University for the South-East.

The creation of a technology university requires the consolidation of at least two institutes of technology.

Each consortium applying must meet criteria relating to the qualifications of its staff, the quality of its research output, and the proportion of students engaged in lifelong learning, among others.

In order for the new TU Dublin to be established, the three current Dublin ITs will need to be dissolved. The move comes after it was revealed last month that six of Ireland’s eight universities had dropped in the QS World University Rankings.

Ireland currently does not have a university in the top 100 in the world, but Leo Varadkar said yesterday that the Government is increasing funding for the third-level sector.

The Taoiseach said: ‘The funding is coming. We’ve increased €50million every year... Also, Project Ireland 2040 provides a massive multi-million-euro investment in higher education and further education. So the money is there, budgets are increasing, but it is also important to make sure that money and resources are used well.’