Trinity professor appointed first president of South East Technological University

A senior Trinity College Dublin professor is to be appointed the first president of South East Technological University (SETU).

Prof Veronica Campbell's appointment was designated by Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris and will be formally ratified by the new university when it is formally established on May 1st.

Originally from Scotland, Prof Campbell has held several senior leadership roles in Trinity College, including dean of graduate studies, bursar and director of strategic innovation.

In this latter role from 2015 to 2021, Prof Campbell oversaw the commencement of a €300million capital project portfolio in the university.

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SETU will be formed from the merger of Waterford Institute of Technology and Carlow Institute of Technology.

The pathway to the establishment of a new technological university in the south east has proved divisive and was marked by distrust and rivalry among groups of staff across the two campuses.

However, the involvement of mediators in more recent times has helped ease concerns. The appointment of a president without links to either institution will be seen by many as a move to help unify the new university.

SETU is the fifth technological university to be established in recent years and forms part of a wider Government’s policy of creating higher education institutions of larger scale and greater capacity.

It will officially celebrate its launch in September in a ceremony to mark the university’s first academic year and the first intake of university students.

Prof Patrick Prendergast, a former provost of Trinity and chairperson designate of SETU's governing body, welcomed Prof Campbell's appointment.

"This is a truly exciting time for the south east of Ireland. This Sunday we will have achieved our long-standing ambition to deliver a university for and of the region. And today I'm particularly delighted to welcome Prof Veronica Campbell as first president of what I know will be an ambitious and innovative technological university," he said.

He added that Prof Campbell has years of experience in senior academic and management roles in higher education in Ireland and abroad.

“She will bring an energy, vitality and leadership to the role and drive our ambition to be a leading European technological university,” he said. Prof Campbell holds a degree in pharmacology from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD in neuropharmacology from the University of London.

She was awarded a Health Research Board post-doctoral fellowship in 1996 and was appointed to an academic post at Trinity College Dublin in 1998.

Prof Campbell has extensive teaching experience and a productive research record in cell biology, pharmacology and tissue engineering.

She currently serves on the board of the Atlantic Institute, based in Oxford University, and was the inaugural chair of the Global Brain Health Institute of Trinity College and UCSF. She is a former president of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland (biomedical sciences section).