New €27 million TUS campus in Limerick officially opens

The local TUS technological university held the official opening of its new €27 million Coonagh Campus in Limerick today (Friday).

The state-of-the-art facility was opened by the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Patrick O'Donovan.

Government funding of €27.5 million was used to deliver a 5,819 sq/m engineering building which will accommodate an additional 800 students, with an emphasis on increasing the number of apprenticeships at the university.

"The official opening of this new campus is a really important development for higher education in the region," said Minister O'Donovan.

"The refurbishment works have delivered a modern, fit-for-purpose building for the education and development of the region's engineering and apprenticeship students, one which will serve staff and students for many decades to come.

"This state-of-the-art campus represents a key phase of TUS’s development and demonstrates the Government’s commitment to supporting excellence in higher education and to delivering on the ambitions of Project Ireland 2040."

TUS said the Coonagh Campus would drive the expansion of engineering education and research, and that it includes new workshops and laboratories that will deliver space for manufacturing engineering and other engineering activities, particularly in apprenticeship programmes.

Speaking at the official opening, Professor Vincent Cunnane, President of TUS, said: "We have shown that we can bring a vision to fruition with the opening of this building today, and that vision and the impact that we can make is about far more than this building.

"It is about people, communities and ultimately creating a virtuous cycle where our graduates have the skills and attributes needed to propel the next phase of the economic development of the region.

"At TUS, we work hard to maintain our educational ethos and our laser focus on employability for our graduates, plugged into the needs of industry. We have an ambition to grow, but not to dilute what we do and how we do it, and Coonagh Campus embodies this ambition."

Other TUS campuses are located in Athlone, Moylish (Limerick), Clare Street (Limerick), Clonmel, Ennis and Thurles.