Edward M. Walsh

Edward M. (Ed) Walsh (born 1939) is the Founding President of the University of Limerick, the first new university established by the Republic of Ireland. He held that post from its inception as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick, when he was appointed as Chairman of the Planning Board and Director in 1970, through its transformation to a university in 1989 until his retirement in 1998. He retains the title of Founding President.

He is a native of Cork city.

Walsh is a graduate of the National University of Ireland and holds Masters and Doctorate qualifications in nuclear and electrical engineering from Iowa State University where he was an Associate of the US Atomic Energy Commission Laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

Walsh is credited with securing funding from the World Bank and the European Investment Bank and developing a new university that contributed much to Ireland. Walsh mounted an international fundraising campaign that secured the support of major philanthropists such as Chuck Feeney and Lewis Glucksman and permitted the University of Limerick to expand significantly at a time when government capital grants were being handed out scarcely. The University introduced to Ireland many of the academic and administrative systems used in leading US universities such as continuous assessment, the weighted Grade Point Average and cooperative education. At the outset it introduced Ireland's first degree in European Studies and fostered international placement of students through European Union schemes such as the ERASMUS programme.

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