Expansion of Ulster University’s Magee campus to 10,000 students by 2032 “is the single biggest transformative economic project, not just for this city but for the entire North West,” argues Stephen Kelly, who is chair of the Magee task force as well as chief executive of Manufacturing NI. He was appointed by Sinn Fein’s former economy minister Conor Murphy.
Steven Lindsay, president of Londonderry Chamber of Commerce, makes similar points. “A university of this scale can raise productivity and strengthen our skills base and research capacity. It supports areas that matter: health, advanced manufacturing, digital innovation, engineering, business, and the creative industries. It can support indigenous enterprise, attract investment, and expand participation in the labour market.”
But words count less than money when it comes to ambition of this scale. Ian Snowden, permanent secretary at the Department for the Economy, warned that the funding isn’t there. Increasing student numbers at Ulster University’s Derry and Coleraine campuses would cost an additional £40m a year. The two choices for Executive ministers would be to either reallocate funds from elsewhere or increase student fees.
Raising tuition fees has “not been politically acceptable”, pointed out Snowden. It is the preferred option of Ulster University, which has become so cash strapped that it is now conducting a voluntary redundancy consultation seeking to cut 450 jobs from its four campuses. Snowden is correct: there is not a single Northern Ireland political party within the Executive or outside that at present supports a rise in student fees.
Where might funds be reallocated from? Health, education, infrastructure, justice and policing all loudly complain of underfunding: none would willingly accept cuts. Nor would Queen’s University be willing to lose funding at a time when it believes it needs more in teaching grant and for research.
Then there is the elephant in the room – how much support is there across the Executive table for Magee expansion and the regeneration of Derry? The late Sir Kenneth Bloomfield – Cabinet secretary to unionist governments in the 1960s and 70s – commented to me in a conversation some years ago that for ‘Londonderry to be a nationalist city is for unionists as it would be for Muslims to have Mecca located in Israel’. The city has an important status for unionism, but it is a complex relationship. The dispute over its name is just one element of this.
Would, then, unionist parties prioritise Magee expansion? I asked the three unionist parties sitting in the Assembly: are they committed to the expansion to 10,000 students by 2032, are they committed to the financing of it and, if so, what policy measures would they adopt to facilitate this. The TUV provided a clear response – no, no, and not applicable, they said. Neither the DUP or UUP, or their party economy spokespersons, provided answers.
The DUP’s chair of the economy committee, Philip Brett, did answer the question in a recent television interview. His party is committed to all of the New Decade New Approach agreement he said – which is less than a fulsome commitment.
While there is an assumption that New Decade New Approach provides a basis for the full implementation of the Magee expansion by 2032, careful reading of NDNA suggests this is less than a binding commitment. Magee is referenced three times in NDNA. “The Executive will expand university provision at Magee in line with commitments made by the previous Executive, including through the establishment of a Graduate Entry Medical School.” The medical school has been established, student numbers have increased to the current 6,500 and commitments prior to NDNA did not specify the 10,000 figure.
The second reference was for the Executive “to bring forward proposals” to realise the 10,000 student campus target. That did not provide a deadline for achieving the student number objective, nor did it provide a commitment to delivery beyond having “proposals” to do so. The Magee task force has unquestionably met that obligation.
The third reference in NDNA to Magee is specific to the role of the Irish government. It welcomed plans for Magee’s expansion and stated it was “willing in principle to contribute to capital investment to support expanded provision at Ulster University Magee Campus, alongside the commitment made as part of this agreement by the UK Government”.
In this, the Irish government has met its promise by allocating €44.5m (£38.6m) from its Shared Island Fund, supported by £7m from Ulster University, for new teaching facilities at Magee. The Irish government is reluctant to provide revenue funding for any Northern Ireland public services – matched by unionist parties’ reluctance to accept it. But it is in the revenue funding of additional students where the financial crisis currently looms over continued Magee expansion.
It might be argued – and probably will be – that the parties to NDNA have met their commitments in a strictly interpreted way. It is obvious, though, that the spirit of the agreement will not be met until the 10,000 student figure is achieved, preferably by 2032, as spelt out by the Magee task force.
Expansion of Magee to 10,000 students might therefore remain unfulfilled unless the Executive – perhaps after next year’s elections – can come together to find a way to allocate the funds. At present, that seems unlikely. Alternatively, as the NDNA was published jointly by the British and Irish governments, will they now accept they have a shared responsibility to ensure its implementation – not just in words, but also in spirit?