The College Director of Commercialisation is to call on schools to make classrooms available during the summer for commercial bookings.
In the minutes from the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Executive in December, obtained by The University Times, it states that where the Commercial Revenue Unit (CRU) and “the Schools can currently be of benefit to one another is in relation to the use of teaching rooms during the summer”.
In an email statement to The University Times, the Director of Commercialisation, Adrian Neilan, stated: “Some of the rooms will need to be upgraded to suit commercial standards. Plans are currently being prepared for the initiative.”
The initiative will mean schools being encouraged to provide their rooms outside of the academic year for use by the CRU, with the memorandum calling on “Heads of Schools with specific ideas for increasing revenue should contact the DoC directly”.
If faculty and school rooms are made available to the CRU, the memorandum says, funding will be made available to renovate the rooms for commercial purposes.
Neilan did not comment on how much revenue the College hopes to raise from the initiative.
Trinity already rents out over 600 rooms across College as accommodation during the summer. This latest venture marks another attempt to raise revenue at a time when universities and institutes of technology across Ireland are experiencing a funding crisis.
The call for schools to offer rooms to rent for commercial purposes coincides with the planned purchase of a new booking system in the College.
