Lynch School Dean Stanton E.F. Wortham; Eugene Wall, acting president of Mary Immaculate College; and Boston College Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley
Boston College's Lynch School of Education and Human Development (Lynch School) and Ireland's Mary Immaculate College (MIC) agreed in principle to develop collaborative academic and student/faculty exchange programs, jointly announced Stanton E.F. Wortham, the Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean of Lynch School, and Professor Eugene Wall, acting president of MIC, a top-ranked Irish College of Education and Liberal Arts.
Wall and BC Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley signed the five-year, renewable agreement during ceremonies at Boston College on March 14. It's the second memorandum of understanding between Boston College's Lynch School of Education and Human Development and a foreign university in 2018, reflecting the University's renewed commitment to the development of programs that promote global cooperation, as articulated in its 10-year strategic plan announced in August 2017.
Lynch School and the Seoul National University of Education (SNUE) agreed to develop collaborative academic cooperation activities in February. SNUE is the country's foremost school of education for future public elementary school teachers.
It's expected that Lynch School will sign as many as five additional agreements with mission-consistent universities in Ireland, South America and Australia during 2018.
Founded in 1898, the Limerick-based MIC is a coeducational Catholic college, accredited by the University of Limerick, that serves nearly 5,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students on two campuses. MIC consistently educates 40 percent of Ireland’s elementary school teachers. Like BC, the college seeks to foster in its students a spirit of justice and compassion in the service of others, grounded in the vision of the Catholic Sisters of Mercy who believed that all individuals, and particularly the most marginalized, are entitled to an education.
"We're very pleased to reach this agreement with Mary Immaculate College," said Wortham. "They share our commitment to enhancing the human condition by helping their students develop as whole human beings in the service to others. We already have plans for student exchanges, and we look forward to working with them over the coming years."
Professor Ana M. Martínez Alemán, Lynch School's associate dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs, will oversee and coordinate the collaboration on behalf of Boston College.
It's anticipated the activities and programs likely to emerge from this agreement range from student exchanges, faculty-led study visits, and joint Master's and Ph.D.-level online programs, to mutual faculty exchanges and the possibility of an international Master's degree in Education.
MIC has significantly expanded since it enrolled 75 female students in 1901 for the purpose of professionally training female teachers for the national Catholic primary school system. In 1969, it became the first co-educational Irish College of Education and in 1974, the first to offer a three-year bachelor of Education degree. In 1998, it was the first Irish College of Education to confer Master's degrees in Education. In addition to a rapidly expanding student population, in 2016 MIC incorporated St. Patrick's College, a County Tipperary-based institution focused on preparing high school teachers, and re-named it MIC St. Patrick's Campus, Thurles.