DkIT is key to generating jobs in local community

DUNDALK Institute of Technology took a ‘significant step forward’ in higher education as a founding member of the Technological Higher Education Association (THEA), which was launched yesterday by the Minister for Education and Skills, Mr Richard Bruton TD.

Speaking at the launch, DkIT President Anne Campbell said: ‘ The launch of the THEA marks a significant step in Irish higher education and affords DkIT the opportunity to reflect on our distinct contribution, together with the other thirteen institutes of technology, to Irish society.’ She added: ‘ Over recent decades Ireland has consciously fostered a diverse higher education landscape in which the institutes of technology have played a seminal role.

The fourteen member institutes within the Technological Higher Education Association are themselves diverse but they share much in common including the role of providing apprenticeship training in higher education; integration of entrepreneurship and work experience; optimum expressions of regional support; the digitalisation agenda; and a strong focus on work-based learning.

We can celebrate the particularly successful role that we have played in widening access to higher education and the manner in which we have largely removed geographical location as an access barrier, contributing considerably to greater social equality and cohesion.’

She highlighted how institutes of technology are ‘an essential part of the economies of regional Ireland and that each job at DkIT generates an additional 7.27 jobs in the local economy.’

But she also stressed that the third level technological sector is in the midst of a funding crisis.

‘ The sector has seen a decrease in the state grant of 35%, a drop in core staffing levels of 12%, a virtual halt to capital investment and an increase in student numbers of 30% between 2008 -2015. The sector has relied on increased productivity from its talented staff at a rate that is not sustainable in the longer term.

We welcome the discussion on income contingent loans and strongly support the view that funding solutions should not limit student access.’