REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON RECEIVING AN HONORARY DEGREE FROM MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON RECEIVING AN HONORARY DEGREE FROM MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY FRIDAY, 23RD FEBRUARY 2001
I am delighted to be here today in the Manchester Metropolitan University, Britain's largest university.
It is no accident that this city with such a remarkable industrial history, and vibrant modern economy should have also a formidable university sector. This University has a powerful reputation in Britain and beyond, for the excellence of its professional and vocational disciplines. As you unpack the story of how that reputation was built and is sustained, the intricate links between city and gown reveal themselves. The fluent relationships the University has established with business and industry have been a critical driver of success. That connectivity, through which research feeds commercial innovation, and enterprise then stimulates new research, has been and will continue to be a cornerstone of growth for the University and for the city of Manchester.
We can measure economic growth. We can see the hard evidence of prosperity but these things alone tell only a small part of the story of this University’s enriching and deepening impact on civic life, on the heart and soul of the city.
Manchester is famed as a centre for youth culture. A huge student population drawn from a wide cultural and social spectrum brings its own energy, its own genius. This University helps harness that energy, give it shape and focus, taking each young person on a journey into the self. They grow in confidence, in skill, in knowledge and wisdom. Those who stay in this city stretch and strengthen its community fabric. You are major investors in so many aspects of this city’s future, from the contributions you make to its economic capital, its knowledge equity, its developed and blossoming human potential, its cultural reservoir, its collective civic confidence.
It is deeply reassuring to note that Manchester Metropolitan University has numerous and long-standing links with Ireland whether through its student body, or the numerous Irish academics associated with the University or through the partnerships which you have fostered with Irish institutions such as the University of Limerick and the Dublin Institute of Technology. We greatly value those ties of friendship and knowledge, and I hope they will grow in strength and number in the years ahead.
I am deeply honoured to receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Manchester Metropolitan University and to count myself now among your loyal alumni. Today adds a further strand to the already strong connections between this University and Ireland. My warmest thanks once again for the gift of friendship which is at the heart of this honour.