One of the main highlights of the IT Tralee calendar takes place this weekend with over 950 students due to graduate on Thursday and Friday.  Each of the 26 counties, in addition to a number of graduates from Northern Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe will be represented at the conferring ceremonies. Students from China, Canada, Malaysia and Indonesia also form part of the IT Tralee 2015 graduating classes which makes for a truly international affair. In total over 30 nationalities will be represented at the three conferring ceremonies.

Conferring will take place at the Brandon Conference Centre, Tralee but as the President of the Institute Dr. Oliver Murphy, highlights, by 2017 the ITT will be in a position to host its graduation ceremonies at the North Campus, Dromtacker. “Under the government capital development programme €7.5m was announced for the construction of the Kerry Sports Academy. The total development cost of the project is €15m and this new facility will host an international sized sporting arena, which will serve as an ideal base for future graduation ceremonies”.

The construction of the sports academy will see the IT Tralee move another step forward in its ambition to locate all activities to the North Campus. Recent years has seen the IT Tralee grow and develop its portfolio of programmes and the ITT is now estimated to be worth €53m annually to the Kerry economy.

IT Tralee is also working closely with Cork Institute of Technology and have successfully completed stage three of a four stage process toward the achievement of technological university status. Both ITT and CIT are awaiting the publication of legislation by the Department of Education and Skills to enable the project to progress to its final stages. This legislation is expected to be published this November.

The ITT 2015 graduation sees the first cohort of graduates from a number of programmes offered at the IT Tralee.  These include the Bachelor of Arts in Outdoor Education and the Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Science. The ceremonies will also see the first graduating class of the Masters of Arts in Adapted Physical Activity.

Graduation is a special day for the graduates themselves, their families and friends. Due to the numbers graduating, the ceremonies have been extended over a two day period as opposed to the normal one day event.

Dr. Murphy paid tribute to all of the graduates and their families for what they have achieved. “I would like to congratulate all of our graduates, their families and friends. The graduation event represents a milestone moment for those who have spent time with us at the IT Tralee.  I would like to thank those students who choose IT Tralee as their third level choice of study. I hope they enjoyed their time at the Institute and I wish them well in their future endeavours.”

The busy calendar of the Institute continues on Friday November 13^th with the IT Tralee Open Day taking place from 9.30 am to 1.30pm. This event is open to all those considering their third level options for September 2016. Over 1200 people are expected to attend and further details will be available on the ITT website in the coming days.