OPINION: UU-led taskforce cannot deliver what Minister needs - Derry University Group

Minister Conor Murphy is to be highly commended for his recent announcement that he intends to deliver a proper university for the North West. This change in mindset towards Derry is as welcome as it is essential.

The Derry University Group would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have been involved in the consistently-growing campaign for an independent North West university (NWU), which has taken us to this point.

The Department of Economy’s stated ambition to have 10,000 students at Magee by 2030 is a refreshing new start, honouring as it does the terms of the blueprint set down by the two governments in 2020, and we all wish to see it happen.

The decision to establish a taskforce is also a clear signal of intent that the issue will remain high on the department’s agenda.

Unfortunately, the department’s decision to bypass the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) - the expert body on the island for Higher Education (HE), whose remit is to support Ireland's third-level sector on a continuing basis - was a cardinal error.

In November 2021, the RIA produced a framework which envisages Derry as the central hub of a North West cross-border university, independent of Belfast.

For the past 18 months it has been working on a delivery plan, in consultation with a wide range of relevant bodies on both sides of the border in the North West - and across the island.

The RIA is also strongly recommending the establishment of a new scrutiny body for universities in Northern Ireland (such as exists in both Britain and the South) to redress the staggering economic imbalance between east and west of the River Bann, which has seen 83% of students and 95% of HE capital-spending corralled for Belfast.

But instead of using the RIA’s obvious expertise, the department has allowed Ulster University to run its own taskforce, despite UU’s recent catastrophic near-collapse in Belfast, which leaves it carrying crippling debts and necessitated a £140 million government bailout.

UU is also under relentless internal pressure to deliver at its other campuses: from both Coleraine, which now wants its own taskforce; and from Belfast, which has already relocated key institutions such as Incore from Magee to try and make the new York Street site viable.

UU’s conflicting internal priorities make it impossible for it to make the best decisions, independently, for each campus. Its refusal to allow precise breakdowns of course numbers and provide clear, comprehensive and consistent numbers of those attending each campus demands full transparency and proper oversight.

And this is before you even consider the widespread opposition/lack of enthusiasm in Derry towards UU’s continued stewardship of Magee, after 60 years of discrimination, neglect, high-handedness and non-delivery.

Indeed, the decision to allow UU to continue at the helm - without first establishing an oversight commission - has been compared locally to handing Jesse James the keys of the bank and telling him not to worry as the security cameras are off.

Ulster University has been dismissive of the RIA’s 2021 blueprint as it would inevitably see the running of Magee return to the people of the North West. UU has also stated that a scrutiny body for the North is ‘not necessary’ - and it has made it patently clear that it does not want any independent or critical voice, or indeed anyone who does not share its ‘vision’, on its new taskforce.

UU has further claimed, misleadingly, on the BBC and in other media, that the only alternative being proposed to UU’s continued running of Derry is a greenfield site. Not so at all - and a point again widely considered at the recent RIA debates and elsewhere in the North West.

The Derry University Group, among others, has long argued that an independent cross-border commission, in conjunction with the Royal Irish Academy, would administer Magee - while retaining UU in a delivery capacity - until such time as a new NWU is fully constituted in its own right.

Ten thousand students is just the first port on this region’s voyage to a more fitting figure of 20,000 to 30000. We have our destination planned and our tickets bought.

We have no doubt that a minister as astute as Conor Murphy, having committed publicly to the development of Derry, will resolve the issues with the taskforce at an early stage. We believe that having turned the ship, he will not allow UU to crash it again.

It is time for a new captain for Derry.