Plans to merge three institutes of technology in Connacht and Ulster to form a technological university have cleared their first hurdle.

Minister for Education and Skills Jan O’Sullivan said she had approved the institutes’ application to proceed to stage two of the four-stage process.

The Connacht-Ulster Alliance, comprising Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Institute of Technology Sligo and Letterkenny Institute of Technology, is bidding for technological university designation under legislation that is scheduled to be published during the current Dáil term.

Two bids, from Dublin and Munster, have already cleared the third stage of the process.

This stage involves approval by an expert panel under the supervision of the Higher Education Authority (HEA).

A fourth bid in the southeast has stalled over disagreements between Waterford Institute of Technology and Institute of Technology Carlow, though exploratory talks on a merger resumed last month.

All but four of the State’s 14 institutes of technology are now engaged in the bidding process for the designation.

‘Number of challenges’

The expression of interest submitted by the Connacht-Ulster Alliance was assessed by the board of the HEA on October 6th, which “has highlighted a number of issues and challenges that will need to be addressed as they progress through the process”, Ms O’Sullivan said.

“Designation as a technological university requires the achievement of challenging criteria and there is significant work to be undertaken by this consortium in the next stages of the process in order to achieve the standards required.”

The alliance must now prepare a detailed plan for submission to the expert panel, including the spending that would be required to achieve university benchmarks.