Plans to establish a third-level education institution in Wexford took a significant step forward this week with the appointment of the facility's director.
Mr Adrian Patterson, who for the past three-and-a-half years has been a member of senior management at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, took up his new post in Wexford on Monday. One of his main tasks over the coming months will be to draw up suitable courses for the facility, in conjunction with a local steering committee.
Based at the former seminary at St Peter's College, the facility will operate as an outreach centre of Carlow Institute of Technology, but will have a large degree of autonomy. About 50 students currently attend three certificate courses run by the Carlow institute at St Peter's, but when the new facility is fully operational a range of diploma, degree and postgraduate courses will also be on offer, catering for several hundred students.
Mr Patterson said yesterday he had a number of ideas regarding the services to be offered by the centre, but these would be the subject of detailed discussions in the months ahead. He anticipated some expansion of courses for the next academic year, beginning in September, but it would be a further year before the facility was fully up and running.
Mr Hugh Byrne, the Wexford-based Minister of State for the Marine, who has campaigned for a third-level facility for the county, has proposed a number of potential courses to the Minister for Education, Dr Woods.
These, he said, would exploit Wexford's maritime and cultural links, its sporting associations and its role as home to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The courses he suggested include genealogy/heritage studies, environmental studies, arts and culture, marine and agriculture, conservation/urban renewal, sports studies and new media. A spokesman for Mr Byrne said opening the facility should be the first stage of a process leading to the establishment of an independent third-level education institution in the county.
The need for a third-level facility in Wexford has been identified in a number of studies, including one carried out by economist Mr Peter Bacon. The county has the lowest level of third-level education participation in the State. The facility at St Peter's College was made available by the Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey.