Education
PHOTOS TUS celebrates graduation of more than 3,800 students at 2025 conferring ceremonies
TUS celebrates graduation of more than 3,800 students at 2025 conferring ceremonies. Ivayla Nekova, Lisa Meehan, Sophie Leahy, Mai Fitzgerald, Jamie Robinson and Emily o Brien (all Interior design ) pictured as the first full generation of TUS students conferred today on the university’s Moylish campus. Pic. Brian Arthur
President Vincent Cunnane and Chair Josephine Feehily highlight education’s role in navigating a world transformed by artificial intelligence at the 2025 TUS conferring ceremonies
Graduation ceremonies across the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) celebrated more than 3,800 students from the Class of 2025, the first cohort of students to complete their studies entirely within TUS, having joined the technological university after its establishment in 2021.
The graduates heard that their education has prepared them to meet these challenges with courage, creativity, and critical thinking.
President of TUS, Vincent Cunnane, said, “We are living in a time of transformation — technological, environmental, political, and social. The impacts of climate change are no longer remote or abstract. They are visible in our communities, in our weather, in our economy, and in our collective awareness. Artificial intelligence is changing how we work, how we communicate, how we make decisions, and perhaps even how we see our world and our place in it. In such a world, it is easy to feel overwhelmed — to imagine that the challenges are too great, or that our individual efforts cannot make a difference. But that is not true.”
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He noted that, just as the world around it has grown and evolved, so too has TUS — with technological advances and artificial intelligence reshaping how we live, work, and think.
“As a Technological University, TUS itself stands as an expression of courage — the courage to reimagine what higher education can be in 21st-century Ireland. What the world needs now — what Ireland needs now — is courage. Courage to act on what is right. Courage to think for yourself when noise and distraction are everywhere. Courage to listen, to engage, and to build bridges where others might build walls.”
He told graduates, “You have witnessed and contributed to the shaping of a new kind of university — one rooted in its regions, outward-looking in its ambitions, and driven by a belief that education is not just about personal success, but about shared progress.”
The Higher Education Authority (HEA) has, on two occasions, identified TUS as the university with the highest graduate employability rates in Ireland.
Prof. Cunnane said: “TUS graduates have the highest graduate employment rates in the entire country. This is not an accident — it is because employers know that you are not just qualified, but capable, adaptable, and ready to learn. You are part of a virtuous cycle — one that strengthens individuals, communities, and regions together. This is how education transforms not just lives, but places.”
Josephine Feehily, Chair of the TUS Governing Body, said that the world graduates are entering what “can feel, at times, a little unsettled”.
While “the pace of change is dizzying”, she said, “That same world is full of opportunity. It asks for courage, adaptability, and, above all, a strong sense of values to keep you grounded when things around you appear to shift so quickly.
“Artificial intelligence will shape your world and your work in ways we can barely imagine. Some of it will be astonishingly positive, some of it will challenge our understanding of what it means to be human, and much of it will demand that we think deeply, ethically, and critically about the future we are creating.”
“Which brings me to something even more important than technical skill or employability: the ability to think critically and to question intelligently.
“In a noisy, fast-moving world, these are the skills that will help you discern truth from noise, substance from distraction. They will help you use AI — and not be used by it. They will help you navigate a world that often rewards immediacy over reflection and certainty over doubt
“Hold on to those questioning habits. They are the mark of educated, thoughtful people — and they will serve you, and the society in which you live, immeasurably well.”
Professor Cunnane closed with a message that captured the spirit of the Class of 2025, “The real value of your education is not measured only in your degree, but in how you use it — Carry with you the curiosity to learn, the sense of community to connect, the desire to contribute — and above all, the courage to do what is right.”
Pictures: Brian Arthur
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