‘We need ambition in this country at the moment’

President of TUS Professor Vincent Cunnane has said that the university is an ambitious institution in a country that needs ambition.

He was speaking at the Athlone Business Awards in the Radisson Blu Hotel on Saturday, where he was honoured with a special recognition award.

Prof Cunnane is retiring on January 31, and the incoming President has been named as Professor Paul Connolly.

Addressing the awards event, Prof Cunnane said it was a huge honour to be recognised with the award.

He noted that TUS was just five years old but said a lot had been achieved in the period, in a particular a significant growth in the intake of first year students, which had risen by 10% last year and by almost that figure this year.

He outlined the impact of retaining third-level students in the region: “We all know that people who graduate from a university in a region tend to stay in the region,” he said, before going on to work in businesses like those represented at the event, and to build familiies in the region.

TUS for the third year in a row has “most employable graduates of any university in the country”, he said.

“You have got to get an awful lot of stuff right to get that accolade. You have to have the relevant programmes for the regions you are serving. You have got to be working with your external stakeholders… You have to listen to what the needs of those industries and communities are and that you reflect those in the programmes that are there.”

Underlining the importance of ambition, he said: “We are an ambitious organisation, and ambition is something that is very important in an Ireland that has become risk averse in a lot of stuff that it does.

“Ambition is the driving force for change,” he said, citing the university’s new capital plan which envisioned the spend of €750m by 2040.

Citing the Athlone Green City concept, he said: “The level of ambition is exceptionally high. Will it all be attained? Who knows? But we will put it on a pathway. We might reach for the sun and hit the moon. That will be ok too. We need ambition in this country at this moment.

“Athlone needs to be the centre of this region and TUS being a university here in Athlone gives you this lead to be this centre of the region,” he said..

“Athlone has a huge future. It just has got to get its head up, be ambitious, work together and make things happen and TUS will help you all the way.”

Earlier, announcing the the recipient of the award, Athlone Chamber President Regina Bushell said Prof Cunnane had “made a considerable contribution to education, to business and to the confidence and ambition of Athlone”.

She said the attainment of university status was “a landmark moment for Athlone – a recognition of what had been built here over many years and an opportunity to think bigger about our future.”

“Here in Athlone we can see the progress, the Mary Ward Centre for Science, the growth in research and enterprise partnership and the opportunities these create for students and businesses,” she added.