€300m Maynooth University investment as numbers soar

Maynooth University is planning a €300m redevelopment of its campus over the next decade.

It is expected that it will have 16,000 students by 2025, an increase of almost 3,000 over this year’s numbers.

The college secured funding last year of €157 million from the European Investment Bank and expects the government to provide up to €100 million.

The plan is to equip the college campus, in particular the north, or new campus, to be able to deal with an expected influx of students.

Authorities at the University have released details of a plan for the future of the campus which they have been working on for the past number of years.

The plans will see an expansion of the college to the west along the Kilcock road on both north and south campuses.

And the college has either bought or leased lands in that direction with that in mind.

In particular, the plan will involve a 'Broadwalk' which will form an academic and social core of the north campus with new campus-wide facilities and faculty buildings in a sustainable green setting.

It will include a new ‘Student Plaza’ which will have an attractive pavilion consisting of housing, social, retail and other student-centred facilities linked by covered walkways to the main academic buildings.

There will also be major new academic buildings, student residences and a new University Green are planned, to radiate out from the Student Plaza.

Something that will interesting locals is a transformation of the Kilcock Rd into “University Avenue through a series of imaginative developments that will link the traditional south campus with the modern north campus in a way that integrates the entire University more closely with the town of Maynooth” plans released last year revealed.

The plan involves spending €184m on teaching and research facilities, €78m for student accommodation, €24m for sports, recreation, arts and culture and €21m for land and infrastructure.

It’s expected that planning applications for various elements of new plan will be lodged  over the next six months.