A new third-level campus for Dublin's docklands will open in 2001 on a 1.3 acre site donated by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority.
At the launch of the project yesterday, Prof Joyce O'Connor, president of the National College of Ireland, currently based in Ranelagh, said the NCI's 1,100 full-time undergraduates, nearly 2,000 part-time undergraduates and 130 postgraduates would move to the £50 million campus in Mayor Street in the autumn of that year.
The NCI, formerly the National College of Industrial Relations, specialises in human resource management, business studies, modern languages, information technology, and also pre-third-level foundation courses.
The college is unique in that 70 per cent of its students are over 23, and up to 80 per cent are part-timers, many of them using distance learning techniques to study at over 40 outreach centres around the Republic. Prof O'Connor said the new campus would "in a synergistic way address the issue of social inclusion at a local and national level while also meeting the needs of Irish business. We will build a bridge between the community and business, not only in the docklands areas, but also nationally".
The new campus will feature libraries and cafes which will be open to students, community and business users; a family resource centre; a "drop in" education centre for locals, and IT links to NCI's outreach centres.
The chairman of NCI's governing body, Dr Paddy Galvin, said the launch marked the beginning of a fund-raising campaign for the new campus. He said £34 million had already been secured; NCI would contribute £5 million through the sale of its present Ranelagh premises; £1 million had been secured through fund-raising and £10 million through loans from financial institutions. A further £10 million would be raised through "intensive fund-raising".
He said discussions with the Department of Education for £7 million in Exchequer funds were continuing.
Mr Lar Bradshaw, chairman of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, said the establishment of a third-level institution in the docklands was "very important in contributing to the `lifelong learning' concept which the authority has been implementing since our inception almost two years ago".