Law will require ITs to merge

The Government will not be changing the rules to allow a college apply alone to become a technological university, Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan said yesterday.

The criteria set out in 2012 for two or more institutes of technology to merge before a TU status application can be made has led to a threat of industrial action by academic staff in two colleges this week.

The Teachers’ Union of Ireland lodged a dispute this week with the Labour Relations Comission, meaning action may be triggered if management at Cork Institute of Technology and Institute of Technoloy Tralee go ahead with a merger ahead of an application to form a Munster Technological University (MTU).

Waterford Institute of Technology withdrew in October from merger talks with IT Carlow, believing it has a far better chance on its own of meeting the high standards to become a TU for the south-east.

Despite the growing pressure for the merger requirement to be removed, the minister said the rule will be included in legislation to facilitate the establishment of a TU sector that she expects to be published in a few months.

“That is what was agreed and that is what we intend to do in the bill. I would hope that the kind of consultation that’s needed will take place,” she said.

The TUI believes the insistence that only merged colleges can apply to become a TU is a way of forcing rationalisation and cost-saving, with no guarantee of achieving university status afterwards.

But Ms O’Sullivan said the international expert panel that assessed the MTU submission last year believed the project to be on the right path towards becoming a technological university.

“I would assume from that, that [the panel] are aware of the strengths...and the reason they have moved them to the next stage is because they believe that they can reach the end,” she said.