Roisin Hogan has been at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology almost from the start. Indeed, her career has kept pace with the growth of the college. Back in 1971, when she was offered a teaching job, the college consisted of a single class. As the institution expanded and developed from school to college, Hogan worked her way up - becoming head of department, head of school, and then principal.

In 1997, when the college achieved institute of technology status, Hogan was appointed director. The appointment has given her the distinction of being the first female to become head of an IT.

In its early days, the college, which was set up by the VEC, offered only one course - a foundation course for people wishing to study art at third level. Certificate and diploma courses followed quickly and by the late 1970s, the Dun Laoghaire School of Art and Design had been re-named the Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design.

In order to fulfill its role as an institute of technology, the college set about developing two new schools - business and humanities and science and technology. Today the DLIADT is one of a kind, offering a range of certificate, diploma, degree and postgraduate courses in media/entertainment and arts-related subjects.

"We got the title `Art, Design and Technology' to reflect where we were coming from," Hogan explains. "We decided to base our mission on our competencies and strengths. We want to maximise the synergies between the arts and sciences." As a result, new disciplines have come on stream, including multimedia technologies, science communication, electronics, e-commerce and entrepreneurship. A master's in scriptwriting has been added to the list of offerings, along with a new degree programme in psychology, which is also media-related.

DLIADT's mission, Hogan says, commits the college to educating students as creative lateral thinkers, who are adaptable to change and innovation. "A key strategy for achieving this is through the extensive use of multi-disciplinary project-based learning," she says. "This enables students to apply their knowledge and the skills they have acquired to solving problems that arise in real-life situations." Hogan has played a seminal role in the development of the college's focus on film, TV, radio, interactive media and animation and design. Her own background is in film and animation.

At Dun Laoghaire, she introduced and developed courses in design communications, which included film and animation, puppetry and set design. "All these courses grew and eventually, under the umbrella of design communication, we developed TV and radio broadcasting, modelmaking, special effects and make-up for film and TV, alongside photography and fine art," she says.

Hogan was born in Tralee, Co Kerry, but grew up in Limerick and attended the Limerick School of Art and Design. She had intended becoming a painter and illustrator, but in 1961, along with a number of her classmates, she got the chance to go to Germany to train in animation.

Six of them went out from Limerick to the Fischer Koeser film studio in Bonn. Three months later, they were back in Dublin working in the fledgling advertising industry.

Hogan's training was well timed and coincided with the start of the advertising and TV boom. "We were mainly working on advertisements for television," Hogan recalls. "I worked as a visualiser and animator for a number of years, after which I went freelance. It was a very exciting time in advertising. There had been nothing like it before in Ireland. The whole thing was new and just taking off. You felt anything was possible." By now, Hogan was married to Larry Hogan, musician, lay preacher, and film maker, who died three years ago. In 1971, she decided to combine her animation work with teaching - in Dun Laoghaire. "I found it very stimulating," she recalls. She particularly enjoyed introducing animation, film and experimental film into the curriculum. "I loved encouraging students to experiment with visual media and to try things out. It's very important that it's not a rigid learning experience and that students have time to develop ways of expressing themselves individually."

The Hogans went on to have four children, all of whom have followed their parents into the arts/entertainments industries. Is she pleased? "None of them have become good, solid bankers," she remarks. "I support that. You have to do what you want to do and follow your dreams."

The DLIADT moved to its current 23-acre site on Kill Avenue, in the early 1980s. The old mansion - Carraiglea - and buildings, which were in turn a reform school and a Christian Brothers seminary, have been renovated and refurbished. The site boasts one new building, which offers lecture theatres, a state-of-the-art library, computer, electronic and physics labs and a restaurant.

This building - known to everyone simply as the new building - is soon to be joined by others, once the second phase of the DLIADT campus development plan is finalised. According to Hogan, the current full-time enrolment of 1,000 students will grow to more than 2,000 by 2005.

"Given that we are moving into a digital age and our focus is on media, knowledge and entertainment, everything we do must be underpinned by technology," she stresses. "We need more teaching and research facilities, an innovation centre and a multipurpose hall."

DLIADT is currently recruiting a new director - Hogan is due to retire in a couple of months. How does she feel? "I'm looking forward to it," she says. "I'm very excited about it. It will give me space and time to do other things - painting for a start. At the moment, my future is an open book. I'd like to get involved with some interesting projects. I'm interested in things that are starting up."

Factfile

Education:

1953-59 Salesian Convent, Limerick. 1959-61 Limerick School of Art.

Family:

married to Larry who died in 1997.

Children:

Two daughters; a film make-up artist and a fine art teacher; two sons - who studied film animation and are now members of the traditional music group, Kila.

Interests:

people, ideas, painting, film, walking, photography.

Favourite film:

The Butcher Boy

Holidays:

a cottage at Lackan Strand, Co Mayo, plus the odd trip to the sun.