University criteria dismissed by college president

The president of Cork Institute of Technology says the standards needed to become a technological university are too focused on research and not enough on meeting the needs of industry and the regions.

In a stinging attack on the long-awaited criteria that the Higher Education Authority (HEA) says must be achieved to become a TU, Dr Brendan Murphy said the proposed Munster Technological University (MTU) would continue to provide courses across a range of disciplines in addition to the science and engineering courses he feels are too central to the new standards.

CIT has plans with Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) and Institute of Technology Tralee (ITT) to develop the multi-campus MTU. But Dr Murphy’s comments appear to put the consortium into conflict with the HEA, which has designed the blueprint published yesterday.