Wednesday 8 September 2010

New University for Derry - a stimulus for the future?

Derry's euphoria from winning the UK City of Culture 2013 has not yet died down.  Whether it will be a sufficient enough incentive to get university aspirants to consider Derry as a venue in the same way as they view either Belfast or Jordanstown remains to be seen! Allied to this is an ambitious plan drawn up various business and community leaders to create new university conditions in the city by 2020. The intention is to lift the city and the North West region, both academically, and importantly, economically as it sets about challenging decades of economic inactivity, high unemployment and few opportunities for higher skills development. Read more


The plan to promote university development in the city will run parallel, at least over the next three years,with Derry's business community's intention on maximising investment required to deliver a comprehensive cultural and arts programme in 2013, and to support this with improvement across the hospitality and leisure sector. The intention is to create a positive and lasting legacy for the region and NI as a whole.  Over the next two years Derry will engage in a hectic phase of transformation.  The city is intent on creating a major new industry around cultural tourism. In total the new initiatives should create more than 1500 jobs in the construction sector alone.

The Chamber of Commerce is also seeking a 25% growth in Derry's creative industries through the expansion of the digital sector in the city. Digital technologies are a priority for Derry.  The Chamber is determined to see Derry become Ireland's Centre for Digital Excellence. Derry has some of the fastest growing firms in the sector, including Learning Pool, EyeSpyfx, 360 Production, the Nerve Centre and Smalltown America. Derry wants to ensure that she competes in digital infrastructure; that its young people - the future labour force - have advanced digital skills and that the city can host world-class digital conferences.


Let us return to those consultation proposals which set out the argument to establish a thriving university in Derry. In 2009, Sir Reg Empey set up a Higher Education Strategy for NI under the chairmanship of Graeme Davies. The University for Derry (U4D) group indicated that taking part in the process would allow it to make the case for substantial expansion of undergraduate and post graduate provision in the city. Should the plan come to fruition another facet of an expanded and successful economy in Derry in the future would be based around the high quality research and development that would emerge from the University of Ulster's expanded provision in the city.


Writing in 'Belfast Telegraph' on Friday August 13th, Kathryn Torney reported that university places in NI must be dramatically increased to end the 'brain drain' of many of the province's best students to institutions in other parts of the UK. The article is very much keeping alive the campaign from University for Derry (U4D) for increased provision at Magee not only to accommodate the rise in applications from both our local universities, QUB and UU, but also to make a very strong case for developing the economy in the North West.

This year, 2010, at both universities here, some 21,680 applications have been received for the 8,378 first year places available. Across the UK there was a record 660,953 applications to the university admissions service UCAS  - almost 200,000 more than there are places.

Given this developing trend of increasing numbers, U4D was established by leaders of the business and community sectors in the North West and is campaigning for student numbers at the UU's Magee campus to be increased from its existing 3700 to 10,000.  The plan has already been endorsed by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Derry City Council, the city's Chamber of Commerce and all the major political parties in the North West.

This crisis on university places in England will get even worse with pressure coming on those places through new funding arrangements and cut backs in public sector spending. Currently over 30% of NI students go away to GB to study at university - and most of these do not return. With a cap on university places here in NI it is likely that this situation will continue as long as the cap is retained. The current system forces our students to move away to study. Many of our students want to remain within NI but can't do so under current arrangements.

In a student satisfaction survey taken in 2009, one of the conclusions reached was that 'higher education is better here than in the rest of the UK'. In this national survey some 84% of respondents in NI were satisfied with their course, a shade ahead of the 82% rate across the whole of the UK. All NI institutions scored above the national average with St. Mary's University College topping the poll! Commenting on the figures Sir Reg Empey alluded to the value placed on high quality higher education by students and staff at local institutions, working together to make higher education one of the keys to success for our students, and, in turn for the economy.

The proposed expansion of higher education provision in the North West aims to include courses more relevant to the needs of local employers. It aims to make Derry/Londonderry  a true university city with a full range of courses and 10,000 students. Such a development would transform the local economy. It would provide a direct boost to the city by creating extra jobs and increase spending power from both staff and students. It will provide the best educational and career prospects for our local fresh talent.

In summary, the consultation document - 'A Vision for a 21st Century University in Derry' includes detail on

- connecting the university to city to increase impact on local area
- redevelopment of underused/underutilised sites on the Strand Road
- medical school attached to Altnagalvin hospital
- increasing range of courses to include more focus on STEM that could be the city's future economy
- new courses in the creative industries; a school of architecture and design, and an Irish School of Performing Arts.

The targeted date for this ambitious plan is 2020.

Key among the proposals is the plan to make the university of Ulster's campuses at Magee, Coleraine and Jordanstown into three autonomous universities within a combined framework. The plan is based on the National University of Ireland (NUI) model in the Republic. Employed by U4D is Professor David Chiddick from the University of Lincoln, who in 2000 mirror imaged in Lincoln what is being proposed by the consortium group in Derry. The University of Lincoln has grown substantially and is a success story both financially and academically and has moved significantly upwards over the past decade in the British universities performance league tables.

Derry could become a true university city ploughing £200 million a year into a city economy and stopping the brain drain of its most successful people. With its new skills base it would be in a key position to attract inward investment. In Derry just 10% of the population is graduate trained and this figure pales against the 25% in some comparable cities in Ireland, Britain and the rest of the Europe.  There must be some effort to replace the 14000 who leave NI each year for higher education in GB by attracting those from outside NI to apply here in greater numbers.


Universities are a major driver of wealth and contribute significantly to economic well being.  In 2007/8 universities contributed £31 billion to the British economy. The University of Lincoln already generates £187 to £250 million to the local economy and employs over 1180 staff.

Qualifications are good for employment prospects.  Some 89% of working age adults with degree/professional level qualifications are in employment in Britain compared with 65% of those with lower school level qualifications. Graduates of working age earn around 70% more per week than their non-graduate counterparts.  For the economy to become stronger requires higher local skills, which will drive higher levels of employment and higher pay. Currently some 20,000 of Derry's best and brightest students are studying at universities in Britain and 50% of these will not return. In NI we require an additional two universities if we are to match England's ratio of student to population.

As the first wave of Open Days pass by for yet another year it will be interesting to watch the developments from the consultation process. Perhaps if Derry can become a centre of excellence in those STEM areas alluded to at the beginning and throughout the article then our young people in making their higher education decisions may be less reluctant to shy away from what the North West could offer.

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