WIT to make case for change to university status

WIT management insists the institute is ready for the transition to a university, writes South-East Correspondent Neans McSweeney.

SENIOR academics and management at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) are putting the finishing touches to a submission outlining the case for university status for the college.

The submission will be made within weeks to Government, to the Minister for Education & Science and to the Higher Education Authority, the body which has responsibility for planning and development in the higher education sector.

The submission will be costed and will set out the return-on-investment to the Exchequer, college board chairman, Redmond O’Donoghue, said.

“A key economic strength of our argument is that the campuses for a regional university in the south-east already exist and there are not anything like the same costs associated with an upgrade of Waterford Institute of Technology as there would be with the provision of a greenfield site that involved very costly land acquisitions, planning and construction.

“In addition to the exceptional facilities at our Cork Road and College Street campuses, we have a 150-acre land-bank at Carriganore, where an enterprise campus is already taking shape.”

The additional cost to the Exchequer of designating the institute as a university will be a relatively small fraction of the return that can be expected to accrue to Government and Irish society over time, Mr O’Donoghue added.

Goodbody Economic Consultants estimated in their August 2005 report for Waterford Chamber of Commerce that if WIT were to become a university, it would generate some 750 additional direct and indirect jobs.

The university would also generate nearly €100 million for the regional economy, equivalent to the location in the south-east of two new large-scale high-end industries, the report added.

Mr O’Donoghue said the case for the upgrade is clear. “There is absolutely no doubt in my mind and, importantly, in the minds of numerous external reviewers from this country and overseas who have examined the institute in forensic detail, that Waterford is ready for the transition to a university.

“Indeed, a key strength of the argument for a regional university in the south-east is the existence of an established institute with a strong earned reputation; an institute that competes successfully with existing universities despite the unique restrictions placed on it.”

Education Minister Mary Hanafin has described WIT as “the jewel in the crown of the IT sector” but said there are no plans by the current administration to change its status.

Locally though, Transport Minister Martin Cullen has described the case for a university in Waterford as “clear cut”.