CIT president announces retirement after 40-year career in higher education
Dr Barry O’Connor's decision will bring the curtain down on a 40-year career of service to the higher education sector. Picture: Darragh Kane
The president of Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) has announced his retirement.
Dr Barry O’Connor, 65, who has held the position since September 2017, told CIT’s governing body this evening that he will retire in December.
His decision will bring the curtain down on a 40-year career of service to the higher education sector, both here and abroad.
His retirement will come just ahead of the formal establishment of the long-awaited Munster Technological University (MTU) when CIT and the Institute of Technology, Tralee (ITT) merge to become a single institution.
MTU, which will be formally established in January, will be the first technological university in Munster, the second university in Cork, and the first university in Kerry.
It makes Dr O’Connor the last person to hold the position of president of CIT, an institution that will cease to exist when the MTU is established.
“I am confident that CIT, and very soon the MTU is on a powerful developing trajectory which will make a strong regional, as well as national, impact. “MTU will be pivotal in the rebooting of the economy, as Cork Regional Technical College was in the dark days of the 1980s,” he said.
"This is a critical time in the development of the institute, in the context of the opportunities offered by MTU and the challenges posed by Covid-19.
"In this context , I will expend every effort, in consort with yourselves and colleagues in IT Tralee, to ensure a smooth transition to MTU and to ensure continuity of CIT’s mission in the face of the global pandemic.
"I have every confidence that CIT’s mission will survive the test of Covid-19 and continue to thrive in MTU.
"When the evolution of CIT and profession focused education in Cork is tracked from the foundation of the Royal Cork Institution of 1807 through to the Cork Municipal School of Music (1878) and the Crawford Municipal School of Art (1884), the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute (1912), the Cork Regional Technical College (1974) and Cork Institute of Technology (1997), the trajectory to a successful regionally based MTU (2021) with a European impact is assured.
"We are all privileged to be a part of this great tradition and investment in the community we serve."
A committed educator, Dr O’Connor’s appointment as interim president was ratified in June 2017 and he assumed the role on September 1 that year.
A past pupil of Cork’s North Monastery CBS, and having graduated as an electrical engineer from UCC, he initially worked as an engineer in the food and pharmaceutical sector in the UK and Ireland.
He joined CIT in 2006 as the head of its school of mechanical and process engineering, and was appointed registrar and vice president for academic affairs in 2008.
Before that, he had extensive experience as lecturer and researcher, including 25 years in University College Cork and sabbatical periods in France, Michigan State University (MSU) in the USA , ESB Porto in Portugal and Alfa Laval in Sweden.
He has participated in many EU research reviews and in academic quality reviews, in both public and private sector higher education institutes.
He holds Engineering and Law degrees from UCC, a PhD from MSU and he is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Ireland.
He has also served as a member of the board of the Cork College of Commerce, Ireland’s largest further education college.
The closing date for the position of inaugural president of the MTU was last week.
The MTU will have a student population of over 18,000 across six campuses in Cork and Kerry, including the CIT Cork School of Music, and the National Maritime College in Ringaskiddy.
