SETU in “three horse race” for courses in pharmacy and veterinary medicine

Waterford Senator, John Cummins has said extensive engagement has taken place between the Department of Further and Higher Education, Department of Health, Department of Agriculture, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Higher Education Authority to identify the exact number of places that are needed in the short, medium and long term at South East Technological University in light of proposals to establish new courses in the pharmacy and veterinary medicine.

He said budgets are also being worked on. In July 2023, then Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris announced that the Higher Education Authority had assessed proposals by SETU to establish such new courses, as well as an expansion of nursing as viable options for consideration as part of the ‘Building Capacity’ process.

“Over the past 12 months full business cases have been finalised,” he said before commenting the aforementioned engagement between the various Government departments.

“In terms of pharmacy, viable options were assessed at University of Galway, South East Technological University and Atlantic Technological University; while University of Limerick, South East Technological University and Atlantic Technological University were assessed as viable options for veterinary medicine,” he said.

“Eight existing universities were assessed to have viable options for expansion of nursing places, while four locations had viable options for new courses,” he added. 

Speaking on the matter in the Seanad earlier this year, Senator Cummins said SETU had submitted “very strong bids for new pharmacy and veterinary medicine disciplines” in addition to an expansion of their nursing school.

“These are obviously competitive calls which are currently being assessed by the HEA, however it would be my hope that we can get approval for at least two out of three of these requests,” he said.

Senator Cummins said he looked forward to an announcement being made shortly with regard to the PPP Engineering and General Teaching building, commenting: “Contrary to what some may say, final tender prices were submitted in April of this year for the five building PPP bundle and significant due diligence has been conducted since due to only one remaining consortia remaining in the process.” 

“I have been working very hard with my Fine Gael government colleagues to bring this matter to conclusion and the Taoiseach has been very clear that a decision will be made shortly,” he said.

“SETU has also submitted its first application to the new Technological Sector Strategic Project Funding (TSSPF) scheme which is a specific capital scheme for the Technological Universities,” he added.

He went on to comment: “I understand the first building of circa 10,000 sq/m is earmarked for the former Waterford Crystal site and will provide a compelling start to the University-Enterprise Quarter, housing teaching, research and innovation/enterprise engagement activities.

“It will complement the work which is ongoing at a pace on the former offices and showrooms, by Frisby’s, which was made possible due to the acquisition of over half the site for SETU earlier this year,” said Senator Cummins.

“I was delighted to organise two letters of support, signed by all Oireachtas members in the Southeast in support of SETU’s bids for course development,” he added.

Senator Cummins comments came in the wake of Waterford Independent TD, Deputy Matt Shananan's criticism of the Taoiseach for "not delivering to-date".

“Despite copious and frequent promises made by Taoiseach Harris as Higher Education minister, the vaunted delivery of capital to advance teaching and accommodation opportunity, new governance and borrowing frameworks to underpin high-level faculty awards has still not happened for SETU,” said Deputy Shanahan.

“The historic and contemporary lack of adequate spend in the south-east third level education sector is evident in the crippling brain drain and the missing economic benefits to regional quality employment and salaries over many years,” he added.

“From my perspective as a Waterford TD, any failure by Government now to deliver on promises made to SETU regarding a new Veterinary School will be an absolute betrayal of student families and educators in the South East region,” said Deputy Shanahan.