The merger of DIT, IT Tallaght, and IT Blanchardstown as the new Technological University Dublin takes effect from today.

TU Dublin is now the largest higher education institution in the State with almost 28,000 students and over 3,000 staff.

It will be a multi-campus university with campuses in Grangegorman, Blanchardstown and Tallaght.

Students currently on courses in DIT, Institute of Technology Blanchardstown and Institute of Technology Tallaght will become the first graduates of a technological university in the State.

Professor David FitzPatrick was recently appointed as the first president of the new institution.

The Minister for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O'Connor has welcomed the formal establishment of TU Dublin.

"I am absolutely delighted that after years of hard work by a wide array of people and institutions including the staff and students of the three institutions now merged into this new Higher Education Institution, the Houses of the Oireachtas and relevant Government Departments, this first day of the New Year of 2019 marks the start of a new era in Irish higher education, with the formal establishment of the first technological university in the State, Technological University (TU) Dublin," said Ms Mitchell O'Connor.