UCC looking to future with confidence

THE announcement yesterday that University College Cork is to embark on the biggest investment programme in its 182-year history must be welcomed. That €350m declaration reflects worthwhile ambition in many areas. It looks the future in the eye in the most positive way.

It also reflects the present. That one of the largest tranches of the investment is a €64m package to increase student accommodation recognises one of the new, market-driven barriers to access to education. Only time will tell if that State-funded expansion of student housing will meet the needs of tomorrow. The college anticipates that its student population will increase from 21,000 to 23,000 in the coming years. More than half of that increase will be made up of external students, as the investment is predicated on high-fee foreign-student numbers increasing from 3,300 to 4,400.

Some €37m is earmarked for a new dental school, €27m to develop the college’s Western Campus, and €90m on a new student hub, a new creative hub, and investment in the business school. Meanwhile, €23m will be spent on a clinical medical school and €10m on ancillary regional developments, including hospitals in Waterford, Kerry, and Tipperary.