Published on: Thursday, 29 June 2017

The Governing Body at its special meeting on Friday 23 June 2017 ratified the appointment of Dr Barry O’Connor, Registrar & Vice President for Academic Affairs as Interim President to take effect on 1 September 2017 and continue until 28 February 2018 or such time that a permanent appointment is made and taken up, whichever occurs earlier.

Dr O’Connor has been Registrar and Vice President for Academic Affairs since 2008, having joined CIT in 2006 as Head of School of Mechanical & Process Engineering. Prior to taking up his current role, he had extensive experience as Lecturer and Researcher, including 25 years in University College Cork and sabbatical periods in ENSIA (France), Michigan State University (USA) , ESB Porto (Portugal) and Alfa Laval in Sweden.

He has participated in many EU Research Reviews and in  Academic Quality reviews, in both public and private sector Higher  Education institutes. He is a member of the French Commission de Titres d’Ingénieur panel of Experts, and an accredited ENQA reviewer, the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education.

Having graduated as an electrical engineer he initially worked as an engineer in the food and pharmaceutical sector in the UK and Ireland. He holds Engineering and Law degrees from UCC , a PhD from MSU and is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Ireland. A committed educator, he is currently Chairman of a Primary School Board, Cork’s North Monastery  CBS, of which he is a past pupil, and a member of the Board of Cork College of Commerce, Ireland’s largest Further Education College.