MTU President: Our job is to get the students work-ready

Professor Maggie Cusack has been president of the Munster Technological University (MTU) since it was formed in January, 2021, through the amalgamation of the Cork Institute of Technology and the Institute of Technology Tralee.

MTU is split across six campuses, two of which are in Kerry: Its north and south campuses. In Cork, it has its Bishopstown campus, as well as the Cork School of Music, the Crawford College of Art and Design, and the National Maritime College of Ireland in Ringaskiddy.

A Scottish native whose parents hailed from Mayo and Donegal, Prof Cusack, who was previously dean of natural sciences at the University of Sterling, was only the second woman in 400 years to become head of an Irish university (and was only beaten by six months by Professor Kerstin May, who became interim president of the University of Limerick in July, 2020).

When she spoke with The Echo just before Christmas, Prof Cusack said that 2024 had been great, and she selected the highlight of the year.

“Over October and November, we had our conferring ceremonies, and that was about 3,500 graduates going out in to the workforce with really high employability, because we have the approach of creating opportunities for work placement, working closely with companies and organisations, so that our graduates are work-ready,” Prof Cusack said.

“We’ve appointed six of our new university executive, and two of our faculty deans are forming five new faculties, so that’s really great, as we get on with all the new structures and we look forward to making five appointments in the new year to complete the executive.

“It’s been a really positive year to look back on, and to look forward,” she said. Prof Cusack said she was enthusiastic about the year ahead, and cited the ongoing development of MTU’s campuses as “future-proofing” the university for the expansion of its student body and for the courses on offer.

“If you look at any of our campuses — our Kerry North campus or our Bishopstown campus — we’ve had a lot of building going on, so into next year we will be opening our STEM building on our Kerry North campus.

“On the Bishopstown campus, we have a new student hub for learning and teaching, and office space. That’s the first building you will see as you come onto the campus, so lots of things to be positive about at MTU,” she said.

“We have a large geographical footprint and we have a great student population — about 18,000 learners — and we’re really delighted with the new buildings to give that capacity to make sure we’re offering state-of-the-art facilities, because that’s what our learners deserve, and it also allows us the possibility for expansion.”

That expansion could well help Ireland to cope with the environmental existential crisis that is climate change.

“If you think about some of the challenges society is facing around sustainability and renewable energy, facilities like the National Maritime College and all the expertise there —I’m thinking about offshore renewable energy — linked with the breadth of expertise across MTU, then we would be in a very strong position to contribute in a very significant way to such an important area.”

Asked if MTU had a particular number in mind for the expansion of its student body, Prof Cusack said she did not have a specific target, and said that the number of students would be dictated by the demand from industry.

“We are committed to making sure that what we are providing is highly relevant, so we work with industry and with companies to make sure that we are future-proofing our skills and our offerings and make sure that we can continue to bring on new courses, adding through a process of evolution.”

Prof Cusack cited two of the university’s new offerings for the start of the academic year in September: A pair of four-year honours degrees, one a BSc in digital health and infomatics for healthcare, and the other a BSc in food business, integrating business with food production and management.

“That’s the approach that we take, that we need to continue to reach out to employers and make sure that what we are providing is highly relevant,” she said.

Because the university has such a wide range, not just in subjects, but also in its types of courses, it can be responsive through schemes such as Springboard, identifying gaps as they arise and addressing them on an ongoing basis.

“I think that’s a very important aspect of the technological universities, that we can do special-purpose awards, we can do the Springboards, we can do full degrees all the way through Master’s and PhD, and that comes in as really important to us, that allows us to have that different, flexible approach to the needs of employers, because their needs are changing at different rates as well,” Prof Cusack said

MTU could not have a one-size-fits-all approach, she said, adding that it was one of her priorities that MTU be an inclusionary, welcoming university to all.

“We are really ionate about access to education, from many groups who would traditionally be under-represented, and that includes students with disabilities, and we would have strong disability services on our Cork and Kerry campuses and staff who work to students with a whole range of disabilities, and that’s something that we work hard on and we never relax on that matter,” she said.

“We recognise that it’s important to continually listen to the student body and to make sure that we continue to make sure that we can our students with disabilities so that they can have the opportunity to access higher education.

“That’s an ongoing process for us, that we continue to work in that way, we continue to work with the Higher Education Authority and make the case for our needs and our funding in those areas, to make sure that we can our students, and we really welcome when that funding is available in a multi-annual basis,” Prof Cusack said.

“Having that certainty is very important for us, because it allows us to plan out in of what students’ needs are and how we can best them, which is, of course, our top priority as a university,” Prof Cusack said.