Founder of Hibernia College wins major award
Sean Rowland, president of Hibernia College, has been named the Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 in the Ernst & Young annual programme.
Dr Sean Rowland, Founder of Hibernia College, and Tanaiste Mary Coughlan, pictured at the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.
Dr. Rowland received this prestigious award for his work with Hibernia College, Ireland’s only accredited online college, which he founded in 2000. The College now employs more than 50 full time staff members and some 300 adjunct faculty staff worldwide. Its offices are situated in Clare Street, Dublin and in Westport, Co Mayo.
In Ireland, Hibernia is best known for its Higher Diploma in Arts in Primary Education which now graduates more qualified primary school teachers than any other course in the country. Internationally, the college has attracted students from over 20 countries worldwide and is known for its courses in areas such as Pharmaceutical Medicine and Financial Management.
The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards are part of a global recognition programme to identify, acclaim and support outstanding entrepreneurs. Dr Rowland was one of three winners from a shortlist of 24, selected from an initial entry of 115 nationwide. The judging panel was chaired by telecoms entrepreneur and previous recipient of the award, Denis O’Brien.
A native of Co Mayo and a graduate of Harvard University and Boston College, Dr Rowland said he was “absolutely amazed but very delighted” to receive the award, which was “an endorsement of the work we have done so far”.
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November 5th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Congratulations to Dr. Rowland on his outstanding achievement and tenacity of vision in the face of enormous negativity and opposition from the status quo in Irish education. Pity that their blinkered views could mobilize such effort to attempt to thwart this innovative approach to Teacher Training. Hibernia College graduates are at the coalface, reflecting the technological advancement of modern educational teaching methodology. The other Teacher Training Colleges would serve future generations of pupils better if they utilized some of Hibernia College’s innovative approaches.