The story of AIT

In this, the first of two articles, IAN KENNEALLY charts the development of Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT) as it made its journey from regional technical college to technological university. AIT’s story can be traced to the 1960s, a time when politicians and civil servants came to realise that the country’s education system was a major contributor to wider economic failures. So, in parallel with initiatives such as the first and second programmes for economic expansion, the government launched a series of projects that would transform Irish education

Among these was Patrick Hillery’s 1963 proposal to develop a system of regional technical colleges (RTCs). It was his successors, particularly Donogh O’Malley, who advanced the proposals. O’Malley was appointed as Minister for Education in July 1966 and he used his brief time in charge of the portfolio to foster reforms that greatly benefitted Irish society. While he is remembered for his introduction of free second-level education, he also drove the development of the regional technical college system. Those colleges were, in the words of the government committee that oversaw their creation, ‘to educate for trade and industry over a broad spectrum of occupations ranging from craft to professional level, notably in engineering and science, but also in commercial, linguistic and other specialities.’

Initially, nine regional technical colleges were built: in Athlone, Carlow, Cork, Dundalk, Galway, Letterkenny, Limerick, Sligo, and Waterford. On 13 September 1969, a brief report in the Westmeath Independent noted that the ‘Athlone College’ had been handed over by the contractor to the college’s board of management. The ceremony, held in an Athlone hotel, was sparsely attended and no journalists were present. The indifference displayed by the local media was symptomatic of wider public attitudes towards the new venture. Initially, people in Athlone and the midlands were uncertain as to the value and credentials of the RTC.

The college’s first principal, David Fenton, arrived a few months later and his passion for the job was lauded by the local press. Fenton was, according to the Westmeath Independent, ‘a man who would fit in any society’ and he was instrumental in changing local attitudes towards the college. As he explained to the media, the Irish education system was heading in ‘the wrong direction’ meaning that ‘the majority of university graduates are academically orientated in their training and not suited for the skills required by a large section of our economy.’ The ‘critical task’ of the new regional technical colleges was the creation of graduates who would have the requisite skills and qualifications for a modern society and economy. Such comments were typical of Fenton’s public pronouncements as he promoted the college to students, parents and industrial figures. He was joined in his campaigning efforts by other senior members of the college staff, such as Gerry Gray, head of business studies.

The college expands

During the 1970s and 1980s, the college succeeded in providing a wide range of technical, scientific and commercial courses. It specialised in subjects such as plastics, becoming a national leader in that field, and it also achieved recognition for the quality of its courses in mineral science, accounting, and catering, among other areas of study. A measure of the college’s progress was the number of international links that were formed during this period, such as with the Camborne School of Mines in Cornwall.

At the same time, the college formed increasingly close ties with industry and commerce. In an interview with the author, James Coyle, who became head of the college’s School of Science in 1980, stated that the RTC Athlone was ‘ideally placed’ to meet the requirements of companies, whether they were small and medium enterprises or largescale multinationals: ‘Many of the teaching staff had vast industrial experience prior to joining the college’ and they were able to transfer their skills to the students. The college’s courses, he said, ‘were practically orientated, teaching students to carry out the relevant tasks and to do them very well’. The success of the college’s graduates underlined Coyle’s claims and they found regular employment in companies such as Élan.

By the 1980s, RTC Athlone was an established presence in the midlands. In 1981, the college reported that ‘student numbers at the Regional Technical College, Athlone, are at an all-time high’ with ‘enrolment in full-time day courses’ across the schools of engineering, science and business reaching 618 students. That figure was supplemented by over 1,000 ‘part-time, day-release, evening and apprenticeship students’. The overall number of students continued to grow throughout the subsequent years. By 1995, a total of 3,600 students were registered at RTC Athlone, of which ‘2,420 were full-time students registered on National Certificate, National Diploma, Degree, Professional and Postgraduate courses’.

Greater independence

During the 1980s and early 1990s, the college was fortunate in that the region provided two ministers for education: Fine Gael’s Patrick Cooney and Fianna Fáil’s Mary O’Rourke. Cooney

took the portfolio at a time when the RTCs were pushing for greater autonomy from the Vocational Educational Committees (VECs) that had controlled the colleges since their foundation. He formed the International Study Group to examine this issue and it concluded that the colleges should be removed ‘from the ambit of the VEC system’ and that they should be ‘independent entities with the capacity to act in their own right’.

Yet it would be his successor as Minister for Education, Mary O’Rourke, who was to make this proposal a legislative reality. O’Rourke, who had been a member of the college’s board of management during the 1970s, believed that the RTCs were being stifled by the VECs. As described in her memoir, the colleges ‘had been shoe-horned into being associated with certain disciplines or areas only, and all in all the huge potential they had was not being realised’. She concluded that there was ‘a need for a developmental type of legislation’ that would enable the RTCs ‘to develop fully into research, to offer degree-level and postgraduate tuition and, in a general way, to interact more closely and more fruitfully with the wider community’. The resulting legislation, the Regional Technical Colleges Act, 1992, was opposed by the VECs, who recognised that they were being side-lined, but it otherwise received wide support. David Fenton, now titled director rather than principal, welcomed the ‘greater independence’ provided by the legislation. In a statement to the media, he said: ‘This college through its Board of Governors and staff, now has the opportunity to focus its efforts clearly on the area of further course development and on providing the widest possible range of services for industrial, commercial and service organisations’. In the next article, we will see how Athlone’s RTC used its new autonomy and how it developed during subsequent decades as a provider of education and as a partner to industry and commerce.

Ian Kenneally is the current Westmeath Historian in Residence. His latest book, Athlone Institute of Technology: a History, will be published by the institute in October 2021 shortly.