Irish Examiner view: An empowering educational consolidation

The Munster Technological University — an amalgamation of Cork Institute of Technology and the Institute of Technology Tralee — will serve more than 18,000 students across six physical campuses

Mitchelstown students from Ballyporeen: Free school bus transport and secondary education were among the dynamics introduced in the 1960s by then minister for education Donogh O'Malley to radicalise the hopes and aspirations of the young in the Sixties. 

Nothing has changed and lifted this society as comprehensively as education. The announcement, more than 50 years ago, by then minister for education Donogh O'Malley that all schooling up to Intermediate Certificate would be free and that buses would be provided to bring rural students to their nearest school was the Rubicon moment in Irish society and education. 

That revolutionary decision in the democratisation of opportunity led, in time, to profound, once-unimaginable social change. 

That many of the first generation to benefit from that inclusion, that new opportunity, now enjoys a secure retirement more than vindicates the 1969 innovation even if there was and is much more to it than that.

That process continues today with the formal establishment of Munster's technological university. 

An amalgamation of Cork Institute of Technology and the Institute of Technology Tralee the new entity will serve more than 18,000 students across six physical campuses with the potential to serve many more online. 

The range of education offered, everything from chemical engineering, cybersecurity and violin performance is as comprehensive as the opportunity it offers to the region.

The university will be led by Professor Maggie Cusack who has, as she should, set a high bar: "I think there’s a huge opportunity here. Ultimately, to become one of the great European technological universities."

That may seem close enough to corporate over-reach but then so too did O'Malley's ambition all those years ago. 

There is no reason to believe that the very welcome, new university will not, like that 1969 game-changer, have a profundly positive impact. Let us all hope it does.