Construction work is due to start in a few weeks' time on a £20 million development at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology's (GMIT) main campus on Galway's Dublin Road.
One of its most striking features will be a timber-clad and copper-screen facade looking south over Galway Bay. This will lead in to a new library and information technology suite for over 800 students, while there will also be extra lecture theatres, and a 300-seat auditorium.
The extension, which has been approved by An Bord Pleanala, will add over 10,000 square metres of floor space to the campus. Details were unveiled recently by
the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, when he opened the GMIT's library at Cluan Mhuire. The timber-lined facade will improve the college's appearance, and will also serve as a solar screen and noise buffer for students, according to the college. Design is by architects Murray O Laoire and Associates.
The GMIT comprises four technological institutes - two in Galway city, one in Letterfrack, Co Galway, and one in Castlebar, Co Mayo. Work on the first phase of the development at the main campus is expected to be completed by 2002, at a time when student numbers are rising. The projected enrolment for the year 2004 is 6,000 "full-time equivalent" students, in addition to those already on the books. Currently, there are 8,000 people registered for full-time and part-time courses on the four campuses.
Dr Gay Corr, GMIT director, has said the development will not only improve the quality of space available, but will also help to meet the institute's objectives in accommodating the increasing demand for places on the campus.
Accommodation is often one of the most difficult challenges facing first-year students - and Galway's rented sector is something of a nightmare, even for prospective tenants earning regular wages. Last week, the president of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), Mr Julian De Spainn, called for direct Government investment in on-campus accommodation to solve the national student housing crisis.
GMIT is already working on a new student village next to the main campus, which is being built with Kenny Developments under a Section 50 tax incentive scheme. There will be 167 houses on the "student estate", providing 714 bed-spaces for the sole use of GMIT students during the academic year.
The homes must be kept to Bord Failte three-star standard for the duration of the tax-break period. Each room has an Internet link, which will allow students to log on to the library across the road - so freeing up library desks. There are separate launderette facilities. It has been proposed that the college should extend its by-laws to the campus, and this may mean that the disciplinary procedures applying to the college may also apply to the student village.
Under a 10-year agreement signed with the management company, the college will have two seats on the board of directors.
GMIT has other developments planned, both in Castlebar and in Galway. The new library at Cluan Mhuire on Galway's Monivea Road, which was opened recently by the Minister, was refurbished as part of a £2.5 million project on the Cluan Mhuire campus. It was formerly a study centre for the Redemptorist Fathers, and was purchased by GMIT in 1994 to accommodate an art and design department, a film and video training facility and a music centre. It now caters for 400 students, and this is expected to rise to 700.
GMIT recently received another boost when an international expert group recommended that it be granted delegated authority to award its own qualifications in respect of all existing NCEA validated national certificate and diploma courses. The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, has described it as "wonderful news and an important milestone in the academic development of the institute".
Dr Gay Corr, the director, has also recently been elected president of EURASHE, the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education.
