Three Dublin ITs submit application to become Ireland's first technological university

Three Dublin institutes of technology have submitted an application to become Ireland’s first technological university – with campuses in Grangegorman, Blanchardstown and Tallaght.

The Technological University for Dublin Alliance (TU4Dublin) is made up of Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), Institute of Technology Blanchardstown and Institute of Technology Tallaght.

TU4Dublin announced its formal application today, as the sod was turned on the new €220m campus for DIT at Grangegorman, Dublin, which is due for completion in summer 2020.

The new university would be developed on three campuses - at Grangegorman, Blanchardstown and Tallaght, with a digital link all students services and resources.

The TU4Dublin application will be considered against criteria laid down in legislation to qualify for establishment as a technological university.

The Higher Education Authority (HEA) will invite an independent international panel to Dublin to evaluate the application and, based on its report, the HEA will make a recommendation to the Minister for Education, who will take the final decision before the end of the year.

Education Minister Richard Bruton, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and junior minister for higher education Mary Mitchell O’Connor, attended today’s sod-turning ceremony.

Technological universities – to be created from a merger of existing institutes of technology - were recommended on a 2004  report on an Irish high education, known as the Hunt Report.

TU4Dublin Strategy Steering Group chair Professor Tom Collins, said the application represented a significant milestone for the  three institutions after seven years hard work.

“This university has the potential to be ground-breaking by providing a new, flexible teaching and learning framework to students that is informed by research and offers,” he said.

DIT president Professor Brian Norton, said the submission envisaged a technological university for Dublin that combined both theoretical and practical approaches to learning, whether in apprenticeship or PhD programmes, underpinned by a strong research base.

Other institutes of technology around the country have also formed partnerships, with a view to submitting an applications to become a technological university.

IT Tallaght president Thomas Stone said the proposed technological university  would have a population of over 28,500 students, including significant numbers of mature students, international students, and a strong research community located across three campuses.

IT Blanchardstown president Dr Diarmuid O’Callaghan it had the potential to be transformative in terms of the overall social, cultural and economic impact on the Greater Dublin Region.