Almost 1,800 students will be conferred with awards at the annual IT Sligo Conferring Ceremonies, today and tomorrow, November 10th and 11th, in the Knocknarea Arena.
Amongst them are the first cohort of graduates from a Master of Science in Biopharmaceutical Science, Bachelor of Science in Environmental Management, Bachelor of Engineering in Polymer Processing, Graduate Diploma in Science in Biopharmaceutical Science and Higher Certificate in Science in Environmental Management.
A number of postgraduate degrees by research will also be awarded including a number of Masters of Science by Research and Doctorates of Philosophy in Business and Humanities.
The annual Corn Sheáin Mhic Mhagnais award, established by former IT Sligo Chairman the late Seán McManus, will be awarded to Team Hermes and their team mentor, computing lecturer Padraig Harte. Team Hermes – Calum Cawley, Aine Conaghan, James McNamara, and Matthew Padden –took were placed first in the world in the Microsoft Imagine Cup Competition earlier this year and were the first team from Ireland to do so.
Speaking at the Conferring, IT Sligo Registrar Brendan McCormack said that while employment opportunities are not as plentiful as they were in recent years, a third level qualification is essential;
“While it has to be recognised that employment opportunities in Ireland currently are unfortunately not what they were in recent years, we know from surveys that we conduct with our graduates that they are finding employment, whether it is at home or abroad. The awards you are being conferred with here today will stand you in good stead, wherever the next step in your life takes you, and we all remain hopeful that the employment market here will improve in the near future.”
Referring to national developments in the higher education sector, he said that it is important that the North West is well represented in new alignments that will arise under the Government’s National Strategy for Higher Education; “Gaining the status of Technological University is our ambition for IT Sligo and the region. This will empower us to continue to provide courses right up to PhD level and to gain standing that is on an equal par with the University sector.
“We in the North West have suffered from the problems of geographical exclusion and regional growth imbalance and IT Sligo sees the National Strategy for Higher Education as an opportunity to overcome these problems by providing leadership in creating new employment opportunities in the North West and a more vibrant and globally engaged knowledge-based regional economy,” he said.
Image Caption: Almost 1,800 graduates will be conferred with awards at IT Sligo at the annual conferring ceremonies today and tomorrow.