A FORMAL agreement is to be signed within days between Dublin City University (DCU) and Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) in an alliance which may contribute to the institute gaining university status.
The decision to seek the alliance with DCU was unanimously agreed by the governing body of DkIT at its last meeting.
The president of the institute, Denis Cummins, said that on foot of the Hunt report on the future of higher education and “having spent 12 to 18 months considering the various issues, including the future provision of education programmes, future research strategy, how we are going to support industry, how we are going to support community and who we are going to partner with, the governing body of DkIT made a very strong unanimous decision at its last meeting to concentrate on a strategic partnership with Dublin City University”.
Mr Cummins told an audience that included Prof Brian MacCraith, the president of DCU, that “in the coming days DkIT and DCU will sign a memorandum setting out areas of co-operation, including academic programme development, research, enterprise support and sharing of services”.
The Higher Education Authority will have to approve such an alliance.
Louth county councillor Declan Breathnach, a primary school principal and a member of the institute’s governing board, said the move “is one of the greatest developments since the development of the college itself”.
“It will put DkIT on a very firm footing in terms of its status, and it will be able to offer a greater range of degree courses and hopefully develop an international status similar to that of DCU.”
A report by the Louth Economic Forum on education and training, published this week, said it was “vital for Louth and the northeast region that DkIT achieves university level status so that the region does not lose competitive advantage to other regions”.
“A strong logical case can be made for established DkIT’s primary strategic alliance with its nearest university neighbour in the Republic, Dublin City University, just 80km away,” it said.