Worthy ambition

THE issue of whether Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) should become a university has been getting quite an airing.

Waterford’s economic standing is below that of other cities and the south-east has the lowest percentage of employment in advanced sectors (25%) in the State. Only 22% of the workforce in the region is continuing with higher level education, well below the national average of 30%.

While Dublin is bursting at the seams, we must provide better opportunities elsewhere for people to live and work closer to home. Only 5% of all graduating students find employment in the south-east and they are lost to other regions. We should never discourage the ambition to be greater than the sum of our parts, and I find that feature of WIT very encouraging.