Ireland might be almost ready for a new kind of university. New legislation is currently being prepared which would allow institutes of technology to apply for technological university status.
It’s been estimated that the necessary legislation will be drawn later this year, meaning that applications for the new status could start to come in by the end of 2014.
Plans are already well underway for a number of institutes, with three groups currently looking at possibly amalgamating. The group most widely expected to achieve university status consists of Dublin Institute of Technology, the Institute of Technology Tallaght and the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown.
The two other groups comprise Cork Institute of Technology and the Institute of Technology Tralee in the southwest and Waterford Institute of Technology and Carlow Institute of Technology in the southeast.
A successful bid for any of the groups would see the institutes join together yet retain their existing campuses, meaning that the new universities would be spread across a number of locations.
Success or failure in the bids will not be determined by the government but by a panel of international assessor who will be looking to ensure that the institutes meet the required international standards.
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