For 25 years Waterford Institute of Technology (upgraded from RTC status this year) has sent its graduates into business, industry and academic life, often in distant parts of the world.
This weekend WIT will inaugurate its new graduates' association with a conference on "Centres of Excellence", which is also intended to highlight the redesignation of the college to institute status.
In a drive to encourage graduates to re-establish links with their alma mater, 10,000 copies of a new graduates' newsletter have been posted out and a graduates' office is being established.
The college, under its new designation, is embarking on a phase of major development to meet the strong upsurge in demand for its courses, particularly for degree places.
This year's enrolment of 5,000 full-time students is about 200 up on last year, and WIT will also cater for some 3,500 part-time and adult students.
The key statistic illustrating the development of the Waterford college, however, is that 40 per cent of students are on degree courses and over 120 postgraduate students are engaged in master's or doctorate-level studies and research. In 1982 the college had no degree students.
This month 1,600 graduates will receive degrees and many of them will find jobs almost immediately through the WIT careers office, which has more than 1,000 requests on file for specific types of graduate.
Applications for the WIT four-year degree programmes went up on average by 30 to 40 per cent this year. With the demand likely to continue, the college will be involved in considerable building development for the next 10 years.
Negotiations are already in progress with the Department of Education on funding and priorities.
Library facilities are a particular pressure-point, and there is deep frustration in the wider Waterford community that £4 million funding for a new library, announced several years ago, has failed to materialise.
A columnist in the Waterford News & Star last week described this as "the single most cynical and despicable act of codding and mischief and blatant deception that we have ever seen".
There is resentment also at manoeuvres earlier this year which were seen as diluting the new status of institute granted to the college. It was to get the same powers as the Dublin Institute of Technology, but in May the then minister, Ms Niamh Bhreathnach, in the view of WIT supporters, gave in to protests from other RTCs and opened the rank of Institute of Technology to all RTCs.
In spite of this setback, which could make it just one fish in a shoal feeding in the same funding pool, WIT is getting on with the job. Pre-fab facilities will be constructed shortly to relieve the pressure on teaching accommodation until future funding is clarified.
Waterford Chamber of Commerce has established a liaison group to examine how industry can help in the development of the college, which is seen as a vital supply source for specialised services.
Leading figures from industry in the south-east region will speak at this weekend's conference on the concept of developing organisational excellence. Another contributor will be the Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey, who will address the subject of "Excellence through People".
In organising the conference, WIT is making a pointed statement on its unique position as a centre of excellence for the educational sector and the south-east.
The new graduates' association, meanwhile, hopes to tap into the huge pool of WIT graduates in the wider world and establish a network which will be both supportive of them and generate support for the development of the college.
Drawing on the most modern communications technology, it has both an email address (gradassoc@wit.ie) and a Website (http://www.wit.ie)