Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her response. On the element of standards, it has been brought to my attention that a new definition of research students has been introduced since the original proposal. That new definition changes the ability of IOTs to qualify. The change to the definition of research students means that more IOTs will achieve technological university status. There was also a change in respect of excluding the body of staff from the requirement for 45% of staff to hold PhDs. Those changes jointly amount to lower qualification criteria in themselves. These are the concerns which are being expressed to me.

I am taking the opportunity to be parochial because there has been a campaign in Waterford for a university for the region for 20 or 30 years now. It is not based on pipe dreams or false ambitions. It is based on hard work, graft and ability to deliver in terms of the staff of the institute over those years and the students who have graduated from it. The students are of the highest standards and I want to acknowledge that. Without disrespect to the other institutes, we need to reward that perseverance and that ability to deliver in terms of educational attainment from the top of the spectrum right to the bottom.

Waterford Institute of Technology, WIT, already meets the criteria that have been set because it has the numbers in respect of its academic staff and it has the student numbers carrying out the levels of research. If it is the case, and it is, that we genuinely want to advance technological universities, based on the existing numbers that Waterford Institute of Technology has, it should be allowed go alone. It is not right for a Government Senator to be saying that but I am speaking based on the facts that I see, the evidence that is before me and what I have learned over many years with regard to Waterford Institute of Technology. The figures in the HEA data tell me that WIT already reaches those standards in terms of academia, research students and so on. I want to put my concern on the record that there is more or less a forced marriage in respect of WIT. It is being forced to amalgamate when the institute already achieves the standards.