Irish Academics Concerned Over Plans To Merge Three Dublin Colleges
Dublin ITs DIT the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown and the Institute of Technology Tallaght will merge as part of plans to rejuvenate Ireland's third level. The amalgamated institute will be known as the TU4D (Technological University for Dublin). Academics are not convinced by the current handling of the merge by DIT officials.
A letter was sent to the chair of DIT's governing board by 32 senior academics, all heads of schools or departments, who have "significant concerns" about the lack of dialogue between DIT officials and staff.
Overall, 50 academics have complained about to DIT management about the project. The group has said that since last September they have not been invited to any meetings about TU4D to examine the proposed merger.According to The Irish Times, the letter stated: “We are concerned and aggrieved that, despite our substantial experience and expertise, we have been largely omitted from the TU4D process".
The letter to Prof Tom Collins, chair of the college’s governing board, said previous inputs on the merger had not been taken into account. In autumn 18 heads of school wrote to Prof Collins and DIT President Prof Brian Norton about their exclusion from the process. They said the sidelining of DIT academics will "disable...the ability of the institution to function as a university”. The assistant heads of school and department are below the “head of school”.
The group clarified that the success of the project relies on inclusivity and co-operation between staff and management of DIT. The headquarters of the TU4D will be placed in the new DIT Grangegorman campus. Yesterday we announced that Cork and Tralee Institutes of Technology will be applying to amalgamate as a Technological University. As part of this process, the two ITs are spending part of a €70,000 branding budget to decide whether they should alter the name of the technological university that will be created by the merger.
Academics in this region are also concerned about the merge and funding for the IT. The provisional name of the merger is Munster Technological University and is expected to enroll its firsts students in 2019.