By: Professor Ged Martin

Professor Ged Martin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:17:50 +0000

The government of Canada’s French-speaking province of Quebec is building a university campus at St-Jerome.
No, don’t be surprised that you’ve never heard of St-Jerome, because it’s not a very big place — the population is about 60,000 (the same as Waterford City) and there’s not many people in the region which is made up of small places with names like St-Calixte-de-Kilkenny.
Where is it? Well, it’s on the highway from Montreal to the famous ski resort of Mont Tremblant. In fact, it’s only 40 km. from Montreal, a major city with no fewer than four universities. And there’s a fast commuter train service from St-Jerome to downtown Montreal.
But the Quebec government believes that St-Jerome is big enough and remote enough to justify its own university, which is being built from scratch.
Compare our own case: a South-East region of almost half a million people, a regional city located 100 km from the nearest university, a first-rate campus already in being (at Ballybeg and Carriganore) — and the government’s own independently commissioned assessor, Dr Jim Port, basically saying in his report on whether WIT should have university status, “where’s your problem?”
So if you’re a bright youngster in Waterford and you want a university degree, there are only 2 pieces of advice; 1. get on the train and got to Dublin or 2. hop on your skis and head for Quebec.

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By: Professor Ged Martin