Posted online: Jun 22nd, 2009

By Sinéad Flanagan
Editor

NUI Maynooth has vehemently denied that it is considering a merger with DCU and the Royal College of Surgeons, as reported recently, though the colleges may be sharing some modules on post-graduate courses in the future.
A spokesperson for the college said “there are joint bids for PRTLI (a research project). A number of joint bids go in every year. There is also some work taking place on shared modules on post-graduate modules.”
“The Department of Education want the universities to work together to develop centres of excellence,” NUI Maynooth’s Deirdre Waters said. Adding however, that finance was not the motivating factor in this; “That’s not really the focus of the work.”
The colleges have worked together on projects in the past, Ms Waters says. “We’ve had a number of successful collaborations over the last three years.” Ms Waters remarked in relation to reports of a merger – “I don’t know where that came from.”
NUI Maynooth is Ireland’s second oldest university and is located 15 miles from Dublin city centre.