Church of Ireland College to link with DCU instead of Trinity

The Church of Ireland College of Education (CICE) which was originally meant to join with Trinity College Dublin will now link with Dublin City University instead.

This is part of a plan by Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn to build associations between small and large education centres.

DCU will supervise a new institute of education in Drumcondra along with the Mater Dai Institute and the Church College.

The Church college was originally to link with Trinity as part of an association that goes back to the 1920’s.

However the Church of Ireland and TCD are now stuck in debate on teacher training which forced the Church College board to seek as “a matter of urgency” talks with DCU.

The board of governors at the Church College told The Irish Times that they are “deeply saddened” by Trinity’s failure to respond to their demands on the issue of a new teacher training facility.

Trinity Registrar, Prof Shane Patricia Ann Alllwright said the Church College withdrew from the discussions on the new arrangements for a teacher training college. Speaking to The Irish Times she said: “It did not provide a response to the options presented, nor propose any alternatives.”

The Church College, now based in Rathmines, Dublin, will close in 3 years as part of the overhaul of teacher training in the state which will see the number of colleges fall from 19 to 6.

The governors of the Church college have accused Trinity of not letting them keep their core principles if a collaboration was to be made. They said Trinity was unwilling to let them keep their name or ethos if they became part of TCD.

In a letter to the Church College’s board in October this year, Minister Quinn said the Church College of Further Education would not be funded unless it co-operated with the new strategic arrangements. “Maintaining a separate CICE presence . . . at the Rathmines site is not envisaged,” he wrote.

This led to emergency discussions to abandon the Trinity collaboration and link with DCU.

As part of this new process Trinity College will instead link with the Marino College of Further Education in Dublin 1.

Adam Higgins