Mary Immaculate College has unveiled ambitious plans for both its Thurles and Limerick sites over the next 20 years.
It’s new Masterplan 2042 is the first developed by MIC since the incorporation of St Patrick’s College in Thurles in 2016.
Since then the number of students on the Thurles campus has risen from 67 to 550.
Vice President of Administration and Finance Michael Keane outlines some of their short term plans.
“One is to build a new kitchen block and canteen. That will be a 2,500 square metre structure. It will cost about €17 million and we’re hoping the government will provide 50% of that.
“After that we’re going to look at student accommodation – we’d like to provide on-campus accommodation for our students.
“We’d like to develop our sports facilities as well. We have some exciting developments there. We’ve land at the back and we’ve recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Tipperary Camogie so we’ve an outside party coming in to use our facilities as well.”
Michael Keane says over the next five or six years they hope to increase their student numbers from around 550 to 1,000.
“Tipperary County Council are playing their role – they’ve been very supportive and have developed the Markets Field area just to the side of our main drive and I’m optimistic they’re going to develop that relief road that cuts across the campus to the rear as well.
“So there’s a lot of stars aligning that I hope will make this happen.
“Thurles is at a great point in terms of accessibility and public transport for students to get to and the cost of living is more reasonable there compared to the larger cities.”
