MTU President reflects on successful historic year
Professor Maggie Cusack, President of MTU and An Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD at the inaugural raising of the MTU flag to mark the official opening of Munster Technological University in the MTU Bishopstown Campus.
It has been an incredible first year for Munster Technological University, but it has not been without its challenges, according to MTU President Professor Maggie Cusack as MTU was established on January 1, 2021 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking to The Irish Examiner, Professor Cusack said she is proud of both MTU’s staff and students for their response to the difficult situation.
“It’s been an incredible year and I must acknowledge how well our students and staff have done because it’s certainly been a year of challenges,” she explained.
MTU was recently acknowledged in The Sunday Times’ Good University Guide for 2022, being awarded university of the year for its impact in tackling Covid-19.
Professor Cusack said the university is delighted with this acknowledgement which is testament to the work of staff and students.
“The students have been brilliant and they’ve had unwavering support from staff to help them further their studies at a very difficult time,” she added.
Learning and teaching continued with strong emphasis on the student experience as highlighted by the Disciplinary Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Assessment Award (DELTA) for Marketing & International Business in recognition of their commitment to continued enhancement.
“Our engagement with companies and our innovation and entrepreneurship success was strong throughout 2021 as was our research excellence with colleagues securing significant research funding and publishing highly cited papers.”
Simultaneously, MTU extended its work on equality, diversity and inclusion and it strengthened its work on sustainability, raising our green flag on the Bishopstown campus and planting native trees.
“It’s really great to reflect on what was achieved in the first year, so absolutely well done to everyone involved.
“When we look across the board at how we managed to excel during a difficult time we see that we have a lot to celebrate.”
With one year under its belt, MTU is now looking to the future with developments to enhance the university’s physical infrastructure already underway, and plans to develop a strategy for the coming years are also in the pipeline.
Work is already underway on a number of key projects across campuses in both Cork and Kerry.
Work on the sports arena in Bishopstown campus is progressing at pace and we will be starting work on a STEM building on MTU’s Kerry North campus and a Learning and Teaching Centre in Bishopstown.
“It’s extremely exciting times,” said Professor Cusack. “Our sport facilities are really important for the health and wellbeing of students and staff and there’s also an important community aspect as well as research opportunities.
“There’s a real multi-pronged approach in terms of the benefits we will get from all new aspects of our physical infrastructure.”
As well as a number of new developments, MTU facilities are being upgraded to the tune of €19m.
“We really think about that infrastructure in terms of how we can best use it for all of the different strands of our activities,” explained Professor Cusack. “It’s not a siloed approach — it’s about the entire university and wider community.
“These new additions and upgrade works are really important in terms of allowing the university to fulfil its ambitions. It’s going to be an exciting year for MTU,” added Professor Cusack.
“We’ll be developing our strategy and, to do that, we’ll be consulting and collaborating with our stakeholders and industry leaders to ensure that everything we do here is on the cutting edge in terms of industry needs and requirements, and to make sure our students are work-ready.” That ability to ensure students are workplace ready is a key aspect of MTU’s ambitions, according to Professor Cusack.
Undergraduate work placements, a flexible ladder of opportunity and a wide range of 120 courses are key aspects in ensuring this, she explained.
“Our wide range of courses is something to celebrate,” said Professor Cusack. “When people think about technological universities, they sometimes think about the obvious subjects such as engineering and science.
“Of course we offer those subjects — we’re the largest provider of engineering courses in Ireland — but we have such a breadth of courses on offer and that’s a huge strength.
“It’s not just about having a broad geographical footprint in terms of two campuses in Kerry and four in Cork — the fact that we have such a broad suite of subject offerings from music, art, design and more, makes the MTU a really rich learning environment.”
Professor Cusack also highlighted the importance of flexible learning and MTU’s ladder of opportunity, which allows people to step in and out of education at various levels from apprenticeships to PhDs, depending on their life or work circumstances.
“We’re really proud of that long ladder of opportunity and it’s something that we will strive to protect,” she said.
“It ensures people can pick up their learning journey at a point that suits them and there’s flexibility there as they can step off and back on depending on their life or work circumstances.
“That’s something we will definitely preserve.
“We’re really proud of the range of opportunities here from apprenticeships to PhDs — it’s a key aspect of MTU and technological universities as a whole.”
Providing each and every undergraduate student with a relevant work placement is another key aspect in ensuring learners are workplace ready once they leave MTU, explained Professor Cusack.
“Every single one of our undergraduate students carries out a work placement,” she said.
“We know that more than 20% of our graduates secured jobs with the company that they carried out their work placement with and that is outstanding.
“94% of our graduates are in paid employment or further study — 52% in paid employment and 42 in further study,” she added.
“Our employability statistics and the fact that we work with our industry partners and local employers to ensure that our courses are relevant and applicable to the workplace is a huge strength of MTU.”
As well as ensuring students are workplace ready, MTU places a keen focus on wellbeing and the importance of that, particularly in light of current circumstances, cannot be overstated, according to Professor Cusack.
MTU’s president highlighted the importance of social opportunities on campus, including sports and societies, as well as the importance of student services such as counselling and more.
“It’s been a really difficult time for young people and learners because a key aspect of that learning environment, the social aspect, has been lost due to the pandemic,” she said.
“We’re really mindful of that and we’re working with our Students’ Union to ensure we can have as much of all the different aspects of support in place as possible.
“That includes counselling, societies and sports facilities because there’s no one answer to all of this.
“It’s about acknowledging the issues and ensuring we have a number of responses in place to support our learners in every aspect of their university experience.”
As well as being praised for its Covid-19 response, MTU has also been leading the way in the area of equality, diversity and inclusion, something it is keen to build on even further, according to Professor Cusack.
The university boasts an Athena Swan award, which recognises the advancement of gender equality in higher education. It was also the first university to carry out Code Red, a student and staff-led initiative designed to tackle period poverty, and is the only Irish university to be awarded a white ribbon, acknowledging its intolerance towards gender-based violence.
Professor Cusack said she is proud of how students and staff have led these initiatives.
“The first step is to have conversations around these issues and students and staff have gone above and beyond in this regard, not just in terms of gender but across a wide range of issues.
“It’s all about ensuring that the diversity in MTU reflects the diversity of humanity and that’s something to celebrate — it’s something we’re very passionate about.”
