The Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin, has signed a statutory order to change the title of 10 regional technical colleges to institutes of technology. Department officials said the change is one of name, not of status.
The 10 are Athlone Institute of Technology; Institute of Technology, Carlow; Dundalk Institute of Technology; Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology; Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology; Letterkenny Institute of Technology; Limerick Institute of Technology; Institute of Technology, Sligo; Institute of Technology, Tallaght; and Institute of Technology, Tralee, Co Kerry.
The name change will help the colleges' image as third-level education providers, at home and abroad, and emphasise their key contribution in training young people for the technological sector. They will continue to have their certificates, diplomas and degrees validated and awarded by the National Council for Educational Awards.
Waterford Institute of Technology, whose upgrading was announced 12 months ago, has applied for qualification-awarding powers to the international review group, chaired by Prof Dervilla Donnelly, which is advising the Minister on which colleges should get such powers.
This week Mr Martin sanctioned funding for a new £11 million library and information technology complex and a new tourism education building for WIT.
Cork RTC, which reacted furiously to last year's unilateral Waterford IT upgrading, formally became an institute of technology earlier this month, after the Minister announced its upgrading last October. It has completed a self-evaluation process and will be meeting the review group shortly.
It is not clear what qualification-awarding powers the other new institutes will eventually have. Last May the an earlier expert working group, also chaired by Prof Donnelly, recommended an unwieldy structure in which all RTCs would be upgraded under a new Irish National Institute of Technology but only some would have powers to validate and award their own qualifications.
It is not clear what role the overall national certification authority, Teastas, will have in this proposed structure.
The Minister has now asked for a forum to be organised, probably next month, to which all bodies involved in the certification and validation of awards, at degree and sub-degree level, will be invited.