President of Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) Dr Brendan Murphy remains committed to the planned Munster Technological University – which would see the amalgamation of CIT with Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) – despite his criticism of the Higher Education Authority’s (HEA) blueprint for such an institution earlier this week.
Dr Murphy branded the authority’s criteria as reflecting “a lack of understanding of the concept and mission of a TU found in many other countries”; however, a spokesperson has since said the criticism did not suggest that there was any question-mark over the CIT president’s commitment to the MTU proposal.
The spokesperson explained: “Dr Murphy did not want to let the publication of the HEA criteria go without comment. He feels the criteria are too narrow and reflect a lack of understanding of what a TU is, as it is understood internationally.”
Dr Murphy had said the HEA criteria fell short of the framework of a “new type” of university, and seemed “designed to protect an outdated and introspective model”.
“CIT has had an effective approach to interaction with industry and business, across the board, not just at PhD level, and Dr Murphy felt that the flexibility necessary to answer the needs of industry may not have been facilitated by the HEA criteria,” the spokesperson said.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
[...] “President of Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) Dr Brendan Murphy remains committed to the planned Munster Technological University – which would see the amalgamation of CIT with Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) – despite his criticism of the Higher Education Authority’s (HEA) blueprint for such an institution earlier this week …” (more) [...]