The cities of Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford are to establish a joint council to boost their profile among politicians, entrepreneurs and adminstrators.
The initiative, announced by Dr Edward Walsh, retiring president of the University of Limerick, is intended to deal with problems associated with the growth of population in the Dublin area "at the expense of the rest of Ireland".
The aim, he said, is to bring about "the necessary radical change of national policies and the reallocation of resources to redress the imbalance".
Dr Walsh was speaking on the final day of the conferring of 1,650 graduates. He said that during the past year, leading members of the academic communities in the universities at Cork, Limerick and Galway had come together "to bring complimentary strength in certain important areas".