CIT chief ups ante for status change

CORK Institute of Technology president Dr Brendan Murphy has reiterated his call for the college to be designated as a technological university, saying it would deliver many benefits.

The college applied for the change in status to the Department of Education last March, adding to similar applications from Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) and Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT).

“The national and international standing of CIT will be enhanced and consequently the institute will be better able to recruit partners, staff, researchers and students from abroad,” Dr Murphy said yesterday.

A spokesperson for Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe said he expects to make a decision in the near future in relation to the application for university status from CIT, WIT and DIT.

He told the Dáil last week the applications raise significant issues about Government higher education policy, particularly the existing roles of the universities and institutes of technology which have distinctive missions, provide different levels and types of programmes, fulfil different roles in the community and have separate academic and governance structures. Dr Murphy said the presence of two institutions of the same standing in the city would give Cork a coherent and diverse higher education provision.

“It will benefit the wider region by allowing it to sustain current competitiveness and by helping to stimulate future growth,” he told graduates of CIT’s Cork School of Music and Crawford College of Art and Design.