Students at Maynooth praise measures that smooth the way into college life

College Profile: The face of Maynooth's student body population has changed dramatically in the past number of years. Anne Byrne reports

Forty years ago, Maynooth University catered to an exclusively male, largely clerical, student body.

Today, there are two colleges: the National University of Ireland Maynooth and the Pontifical University, St Patrick's College, Maynooth. The latter caters for seminarian students and some lay students. In NUI Maynooth, there are virtually no seminarians, and women making up 63 per cent of the 5,000 strong student body.

Both colleges co-exist on a beautiful campus, with the older buildings clustered on the 75-acre south campus, which is linked, via a bridge over the old Galway road, to the modern, 80-acre north campus.

The president of NUI Maynooth, Dr W J Smyth, has his office in Riverstown Lodge on the south campus, a building that dates to the 1770s. The Lodge was originally a Church of Ireland rectory. The campus that was to become synonymous with the formation of priests for the Catholic Church was (and still is) bounded, on one side, by Parson Street.

In another irony, in the early 1800s, Riverstown Lodge housed lay students in the 18 years they were admitted to the college, before they were banned, to be re-admitted more than a century later, in 1966. As well as buildings leased and owned on the main campus, NUI Maynooth has an outreach campus in Kilkenny, where almost 170 students are enrolled in BA and diploma programmes. A further 2,500 students are registered for a wide range of certificate and diploma courses, delivered at centres throughout the country.

The faculties of arts, Celtic studies and philosophy account for about 75 per cent of NUI Maynooth's students, with engineering and science accounting for the remainder. This year, the college will offer two new degrees - social science and biological sciences. Last year, it introduced a degree in physics with astrophysics.

Three new research institutes - bioengineering and agroecology, immunology, and regional and spatial analysis - have been established, with core funding from the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI). It was not successful in the most recent third cycle of PRTLI, when it put in a bid for a research library (this went to UCC). However, NUI Maynooth was successful in the first round of Science Foundation Ireland funding, announced last July. Professor Douglas Leith of the University of Strathclyde will be the principal researcher on a €6.4 million, five-year programme of research in information and communications technology.

About one-fifth of the enrolment is at postgraduate and diploma level. In its strategic plan, the college sets out its ambition to increase postgraduate enrolment to 25 per cent of the student body. Other targets include a 200 per cent expansion in the number of places for socially disadvantaged students (currently 25 places); expansion of mature student intake from 11 to 15 per cent; and expansion of non-EU students from 200 to 350.

Following adverse publicity about dropoug rates, NUI Maynooth has taken a number of positive measures to help students adjust to third-level. A mentoring programme was introduced for first-year students this academic year. Each mentor looks after 10 students. The college president, vice president and bursar have all volunteered for the scheme.

Former registrar Dr Peter Carr has been appointed as an academic counsellor and has set up the new academic advisory office. A "week zero" introduces new students to college life, and support services, before term begins. The president of the students' union, Seaghan Kearney, says the new initiatives have been very successful.

"We did a survey of 300 students last October and found that 92 per cent said they were happy with NUI Maynooth. Most people like Maynooth from a social point of view. It's a small campus, with a village type atmosphere.

It's a lot easier to get to know people - the lecture halls are smaller. It's not at all intimidating," he says.

There is a downside to college life, he admits, albeit a temporary one. "It a relatively young campus. There's a lot of development going on and we have students complaining about the mud." But, when it's all finished, there will be a "student centre to match other universities: new pitches, an all-weather pitch, an extended gym and weights room".

There are currently six cranes and four building contractors in campus. Dr Smith says that new biosciences and electronic engineering buildings are in train, as well as the new sports hall and 300 ensuite bedrooms for students.

"There are 240 bedrooms on the north campus that students can rent from St Patrick's. We just completed 100 bedrooms. By the time the project is finished, there will be 700 people living on campus. We hope to bring that up to 1,000 eventually." As to the future, Dr Smith says: "We're in a knowledge era, globally. The key resource is knowledge. Unlike natural resources, it can reproduce and extend itself. In this type of society, universities have a fundamental and central role . . . it's not just economic. Universities have a central role in creating the social and culture mores that allow the future society to live in this new environment.

"The Skilbeck report was a wake-up call to Irish universities. We are part of the world and we have a real role to play. The future of Ireland is more clearly interlinked with the universities than at any other time in the past . . . the universities can't be the high-walled enclosed enclaves of the past. It's a discussion that hasn't been internalised in the universities all that well. But, once we accept that premise, access for mature students and disadvantaged students follow naturally. The university is part of society and there must be social justice. There's a great loyalty from the "students to Maynooth I think NUI Maynooth has a great future."

• PROFILE: Dr W J Smyth

Dr W J Smyth is president NUI Maynooth and pro-vice-chancellor of NUI.

Born: Co Armagh

Education: Halftown School, a two-room school, with 49 students. He was the first (and last) student to get the 11-Plus; St Colman's Grammar School, Newry; BA in history and geography, and PhD in geography from UCD. In 1995, he was awarded honorary LLDs by QUB and UL.

Career: travelling studentship from NUI, spending a year in each of the universities of Liverpool, Toronto and British Columbia. Appointed assistant professor at the University of Toronto in 1975; returned in 1978 as professor of geography at NUI Maynooth. Served as dean of arts, vice-president, master of the college and, since 1997, as president (10-year term to 2004).

Most proud of: overseeing the transition from St Patrick's College to NUI Maynooth. "Within the space of a few weeks, 400 employees changed employer.

"Pension funds had to be split. Property had to be purchased or leased. We did it with the minimum of acrimony."

Biggest headache: "overseeing the transition from St Patrick's College to NUI Maynooth. For two years, I didn't sleep much at night."

Family: married to Rosemary; children: Fiona, just graduated from UCD with a degree in architecture; Sinead, studying psychology in NUI Maynooth and Cathal, fifth year at second-level.

• FACTFILE: NUI Maynooth

Origins: dates from1795, when St Patrick's College, Maynooth, was founded, making it the second-oldest university in the State. The college was established to accommodate Irish students stranded as a result of the French revolution. It was a seminary, but the curriculum included instruction in the natural sciences and humanities as well as theology. Lay students were admitted from 1803 to 1820. In 1910, St Patrick's College became a recognised college of the NUI. In 1966, the college again admitted lay students (male and female). In1997, the faculties of arts, science, philosophy and Celtic studies were given separate legal status as NUI Maynooth.

Faculties: arts, Celtic studies, engineering, philosophy and science. Student statistics: 5,000 students. The recently published strategic plan for the university has set a growth target of 2 per cent per annum over the years 2000 to 2005.

Campus: some leased buildings on the older, south campus; owns most buildings on the north campus. New developments will include various expansions, which will cost €62.5 million.

Research: three independent institutes have been established: bioengineering and agroecology, immunology and regional and spatial analysis.

Famous include: John Hume, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and Government minister Mary O'Rourke.