A chara, - In her statement of January 21st the Minister for Education, Ms Breathnach, states that The report of the Steering Committee (on the future of higher education) recommended the upgrading ... of Waterford Regional Technical College". This statement has been accepted as fact by the media, not least by your own editorial and report by Andy Pollack (January 28th).
In fact, the report stated that there was no case for special designation of the Waterford college merely that increased resources were required to alleviate a deficit of degree courses in the region. This conclusion was reached despite the fact that the apparent agenda of the department was that the committee would recommend an upgrade. The committee was further "assisted" in coming to the department's "hoped for" conclusion by being restricted to looking at four regions only, Waterford being one such region.
Cork Regional Technical College (Cork's Institute of Technology) is, we believe the only RTC operating at a similar level to the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). For example, in this department we operate a four year B. Eng. Degree in Mechanical Engineering which is the only such degree in the RTC sector with full accreditation from the appropriate professional body in this country (The Institute of Engineers of Ireland).
This distinction is shared by our colleagues in both the Electronic Engineering and Chemical Engineering Departments, whose accreditation is also unmatched by any other RTC. This accreditation is what gives our degrees recognition abroad, allows graduates to undertake masters and doctorate degree studies and achieve chartered engineer status within their profession. Outside of the university sector, only this college and the DIT hold these accreditations.
In any comparison of RTCs based on merit, this college has an unanswerable case for upgrading. The Minister is entitled to upgrade other colleges based on other criteria (whether backed up dubiously or otherwise by steering committee reports) but she cannot ignore that this college is already operating at institute of technology level and that, in fact, it is probably the only college in the sector doing so. - Yours, etc,
M.Eng.Sc.,
Dept. of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering,
Cork Regional Technical
College.