DIT seeks upgrading as campus is opened

THE Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) marked the official opening of a £10 million new business campus off Aungier Street yesterday with a plea for university status.

The DIT president, Dr Brendan Goldsmith, appealed to the Minister for Education to look at how her proposals for new university legislation could be applied to the institute.

The DIT's campaign for upgrading has received a boost with the decision by an international review team to recommend that the college be allowed to award its own degrees - at present, these are being awarded by the University of Dublin. This recommendation will soon be forwarded to the Higher Education Authority, The Irish Times understands.

The Minister for Education, Ms Breathnach, had earlier opened the new campus, which is on the site of the old Jacob's biscuit factory, and announced that the institute was to receive £11.75 million out of the £120 million available for the development of third level colleges under the national plan.

The new building, designed Burke Kennedy Doyle and Partners, accommodates 1,200 students, most of whom have relocated from the former College of Commerce in Rathmines. A planned second phase of the development will see the transfer of DIT students from Mountjoy Square to the Aungier Street campus.

The building incorporates a number of features which survive from the old Jacob's factory. These include the original granite arcade on Bishop Street as well as some decorative stone pieces.

After Jacobs moved out to a new factory in Tallaght more than 30 years ago, the factory, which was occupied by troops under Thomas MacDonagh during the Easter Rising in 1916, was left derelict and was destroyed by fire in 1987.