"Leadership is all about your energy and finding what you're genuinely enthusiastic about"
Maggie Cusack Professor Mtu President,
DELOITTE LEADERSHIP SERIES: PROFESSOR MAGGIE CUSACK, MTU PRESIDENT
The second of four recent female presidential appointments to a university, Professor Maggie Cusack has taken the reins of Munster Technological University (MTU) at an exciting and challenging time for the institution.
Born in Glasgow to Irish parents with roots in Mayo and Donegal, her arrival in Ireland is a personal homecoming allied to a professional mission dedicated to maximising the opportunities of MTU in bringing “educational, economic and social benefit to the region for generations to come.” Formerly Dean of Natural Sciences at the University of Sterling, Professor Cusack has a long-established career in academic leadership and research, having previously led a merged department at the University of Glasgow, in addition to roles as a Graduate School head and International lead.
“MTU has a very long ladder of opportunity from apprenticeships to PhDs, and everything in between. We have a strong commitment to ensuring our students gain employment experience and are work-ready once they graduate — that is a really important trademark.”
MTU has an extensive regional footprint with six campuses across the South-West region in Cork and Kerry, and a student body of over 18,000. In its first full academic year, MTU has increased its portfolio of courses on offer to over 140 across a diverse range of disciplines.
Recalling her early education within “the rough and tumble” of a Glasgow secondary school, Professor Cusack credits the encouragement of her teachers in helping her strive for higher goals along her academic path. Eileen asked if attending university was the norm for her female peer group at that time. “There would have been only a very small number of pupils going through to third level back then, so I was absolutely lucky to have had fantastic teachers who were very encouraging, and seeing my interest in science and food, supported me in going on to university.”
Following qualification, Professor Cusack worked her way up through a number of roles and was Dean of Natural Sciences at Stirling University — the largest faculty in the university — when the offer came from MTU.
“The way the Irish government has invested in education, and the fact that there is a long ladder of opportunities in technological universities from craft apprentices all the way through, really resonated with me and my own educational beginnings in an inner-city Glasgow school. As a university, it’s important to cater for whatever background students come from and where they want to go.”
As one of the largest providers of training and education in the country, MTU has developed degree-level apprenticeships across a wide range of subjects, including engineering, culinary arts, biopharma, logistics and software.
A flexible approach to preparing students for the ever-changing demands of the modern workplace ranks high amongst Professor Cusack’s list of priorities: “Education is not a ‘one size fits all’, and it is important we support students with a range of opportunities to help them fulfil their potential in life.”
In the mobile and fluid work environment of 2022, education has become a recurring activity allowing people a broader scope to change careers and learn new disciplines. “Some students will enter the workplace on completion of an apprenticeship or undergraduate degree, while others will go on to do a Masters or return to complete their PhD. People may return to education at different rungs of their life and career ladder, stepping on and off as their circumstances dictate. The fact that MTU will be there to support them is a real strength.”
Given Deloitte’s own emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace, Eileen inquired on the role of universities and other higher education institutions in embodying high standards of equality, diversity and inclusion in the students they educate.
“MTU is a university for students from all backgrounds and all walks of life, a place where these values are actively promoted across all activities. I firmly believe that genuinely embracing diversity creates a much better place to work or study.”
MTU supports the Exxcel Programme, dedicated to assisting females with start-up ideas, in addition to being part of the iWish initiative which promotes women in STEM. Entrepreneurship in the form of the Rubicon Centre, prominent on the Cork campus, allied to the Tom Crean Centre in Tralee, have each played their part in the creation and development of more than 500 start-ups that have emerged in recent years.
Similarly, Professor Cusack sees the commercial relationships with industry nurtured over the years through the former efforts of CIT and IT Tralee continuing to grow and develop into the future: “Employability is something that we can be really proud of, the work experience and placements informed by interactions with companies small, large and multinational enables our students to be work ready. We have a direct role in communicating with those organisations and need to be nimble and agile in responding to those needs and ensuring we stay ahead of the curve there.”
Having amassed a significant number of leadership roles from the earliest stages of her academic career, Professor Cusack reflects on how she managed to realise the opportunities as they presented themselves.
“Looking back, the leadership roles where I really thrived were those occasions where I was given the responsibility to run with something. It’s not only about being assigned tasks with so much time to accomplish them, rather it’s about your energy, motivation and those aspects you’re genuinely enthusiastic about — that’s where you’re going to thrive and deliver.”
A leader needs to ensure colleagues have the resources and means to perform — helping to generate a collective energy, then stepping aside and letting people get on with it. “It’s about enabling, allowing people to feed off that energy themselves.”
In wishing Professor Cusack well in her Presidency of MTU, Eileen queried her ambitions for MTU. In response, Professor Cusack envisions an outstanding technological university, renowned internationally in caring about the student experience and producing work-ready graduates for a diverse array of opportunities.
“Our goal is to create graduates who can make a difference, whether as employees, entrepreneurs, professionals or leaders in society. Our job is to continue to help and support our students on all of those trajectories.”
MTU already has a solid reputation, she concludes, and is poised to deliver further on that: “People are really impressed with the way we interact with local employers and making sure that what we provide is genuinely fit for purpose. We must continue to be nimble and agile with what has to be provided. I think our ambitions for the future of MTU should be set very high indeed.”
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