The determined stride of the new President of Mary Immaculate College echoes through Siberia, the aptly named region of the campus where those who are inappropriately garbed freeze.

"I want you to see the worst as well as the best," he explains, pointing to the begrimed corrugated plastic roofing over the corridor. The campus, which was designed for 750 students, is thronged with some 1,800 bodies (exclusive of staff). The last significant capital investment was in the late 1970s when the "new library" was built.

Dr Peadar Cremin became president of Mary Immaculate in September this year, the first lay president in the college's 101-year history. He is obviously determined to fight for resources: Cremin's first speech at the graduation of students, late last month, marked the beginning of this campaign. "It is our view that students on this campus merit the same quality of lecture theatre, of computer laboratory, of sports facility, and of library facility as students elsewhere . . . we have responded generously to the Minister for Education and Science's call for more teachers . . . increasing numbers requires increased accommodation."

He says that on a State level has been no investment in the teacher-training colleges since the 1970s - but there was "asset stripping" with the loss of Carysford. "We've cashed in, nationally, some of our teaching-education chips." And, now the demand for primary teachers has risen steeply. In 1992, Mary Immaculate had 300 students in total; this year, there are more than 500 students going into the first year of B.Ed and graduate diploma programmes.

In a month or two, the college will have three new large prefabricated buildings. These join an already impressive collection of prefabs, ranging over the decades and in varying states of repair. Cremin suggests the college has been too careful of these, pouring money in that would have been better spent on permanent accommodation.

Looking on the bright side, Cremin suggests the campus could double as a prefab museum.

Back inside solid walls, our tour through the college comes to a halt at one of its four microteaching centres. Here, student teachers take small groups of pupils from local schools and teach them while being videotaped. They then critique the tape. Micro-teaching begins in first year. Cremin says Mary Immaculate has a long history of introducing students to "real" teaching at an early stage; pupils range from second to sixth class. (Infants are excluded on the basis that infant teaching is much more complex and better suited to second-years on).

The studio facilities in the college are also available to students taking media and communications in their BA.

Next, we head for the largest theatre in the college, which seats some 300 people. Cremin says that this means all of the college's 400 first-year B.Ed students can not be accommodated in one theatre.

Conferring ceremonies take place in the gym. The carpets and pennants from the previous Friday's conferring have been removed and it has returned to its original purpose. Cremin says that they accommodated 800 people at the conferring, with the overflow housed in other rooms - where a broadcast of the ceremony was relayed.

Limerick Corporation badly needs a new multi-purpose sports centre, as does Mary Immaculate, he says. There are also 14 schools within a 15minute walking distance who could benefit from such a centre. The racecourse is up for development, and Cremin is trying to interest people in a partnership venture.

Leaving the gym, we walk between two old yew trees towards Summerville, a house built in the late 1700s. As well as computer labs and classrooms, this is home to part of the college's curriculum development unit. Among other projects, the unit is working on a "Positive Intervention in Educational Disadvantage" initiative.

Upstairs in the labyrinthine house, there is a state-of-art computer lab, a result of collaboration with Dell and Microsoft. The deal was that the college would make the facilities available to primary pupils for the first six months of its operation. "It was enormously successful, with buses of kids taking it in as part of their school tour. We then bought out the computers . . . . It's an example of the scrimping and scraping involved in putting together facilities."

Another innovative scheme at Mary Immaculate allows first-year B.Ed students to take a loan from the INTO credit union to buy laptops. They pay back a minimum amount during their years in college, and the remainder after they get work.

Prior to his appointment as president, Cremin was acting head of education at the college. He was senior lecturer in social and environmental education and organiser of student teaching experience for more than 20 years. He is the author of history, geography and science books for primary schools and sports a fainne or on his lapel.

ALTHOUGH Mary Immaculate is synonymous with teacher training, Cremin says the college now provides much more than the three-year B.Ed.

In terms of full-time students, the B.Ed is still the flagship programme, with 410 first-year students, 300 second-years and 239 third-years. The college also has 99 students doing the graduate diploma in education (primary teaching). The fouryear BA programme has 163 students in first year, with 551 student in the remaining three years.

At postgraduate level, the numbers are small but growing, with 28 students pursuing fulltime MA programmes by research. A further 144 students are pursuing part-time postgraduate qualifications on a part-time basis with three of these studying for their doctorate.

The part-time model where students study for a postgraduate diploma or, with the addition of a dissertation, for an MA, is the one which Cremin sees as developing the role of the primary teacher. "In my view, in five or 10 years' time most teachers will have some postgraduate specialism. Teachers may have been given the false notion in the past that their primary qualification prepared them to teach for the next 40 years. The B.Ed is a starter kit. We need to upgrade constantly."

He says the argument about bringing in specialist teachers for subjects such as art, drama and science would end up with primary school being like second-level schools.

"Education at primary level should centre around the teacher's relationship with the child rather than their relationship with the subject. We don't need specialist teachers, but what we do need is teachers with specialisms, and the system should facilitate this."