A Chara, - I would like to express my annoyance at your article (January 28th) regarding the redesignation of Waterford RTC to Waterford Institute of Technology. I would like to bring the following matters to your attention:
1. The redesignation or upgrading of an educational or academic, institution should be based on academic excellence and not on political expediency.
2. You are correct when you said that the interim report of the steering group sub-committee recommended the change in title for Waterford. However, this recommendation was overturned by the committee as a whole, who recommended that all RTCs be redesignated Regional Institutes of Technologies in its final report to the Minister.
3. The above mentioned subcommittee had strict terms of reference to look only at four cases: Waterford, North Tipperary, Mayo and Dublin. Cork was excluded. In three of the four cases, it recommended the setting up of an RTC and in Waterford's case a redesignation. If Cork had been included in its terms of reference, I feel confident that it would have recommended a similar redesignation for Cork.
4. In your article Waterford is termed "perhaps the most progressive RTC in the state" while in the article "Cork Seeks Status" elsewhere in The Irish Times on the same day, it is said that Cork "is widely seen as the most progressive RTC in the country."
5. The final sentence is as poor a piece of journalism as I have seen, with an opinion offered that the Minister made a good decision based on expert advice. From whom did she obtain this expert advice? Not from the Steering Group, but a sub-committee of a steering group which was hampered by limited terms of reference. For your information, the Technical Working Group which investigated the RTC sector and offered expert opinion consisted of two members from ESRI, one from the Department of Education, one from NESC and only one member from the RTC sector, Dr. Eric Martin from Waterford RTC.
Finally, in the article by John Connolly entitled "Tensions over TEASTAS proposals" it should be pointed out that the proposed structure of TEASTAS has been rejected by the director, academic council and governing body of Cork RTC. This has been made clear to the Minister, yet she still tried to fob off Cork RTC's legimate rights for redesignation by saying that TEASTAS would be a panacea for all our ills. The Director of Cork RTC has since resigned his position on the Council of Directors of Regional Colleges. - Yours etc.
Research Co-ordinator, Dept. of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering, Cork Regional Technical College, Rossa Avenue, Bishopstown, Co. Cork,