More capital funding provided to Ulster University for Coleraine than Magee College in ten years

Magee College accounted for £18,243,000 in allocations from the Department for the Economy and the former Department for Employment and Learning between 2013/14 and 2022/23. Coleraine, by contrast, accounted for £18,909,000.

More conventional capital grant funding was provided to Belfast than either of the North West campuses at £26,759,000. Belfast also benefitted from Financial Transactions Capital loan funding of £174,300,000 over the ten year period on top of the capital grant funding.

Ulster University was also granted convention capital grant funding of £35,000,000 for conventional cross-campus capital investment.

Total capital grant funding thus stood at £99.2m across Belfast (£26.7m), Coleraine (£18.9m) and Magee (£18.2m).

The minister released the information in response to an Assembly Question from Foyle MLA Sinéad McLaughlin.

Mr. Murphy provided a breakdown of the capital allocations by campus and project as follows:

Magee College: Development at Magee – Teaching Block (£10,125,000); Spatial Computing and Neurotechnology Innovation Hub (£266,000); Magee Campus, Nursing & Paramedics Skill Space (£218,000); School of Health Sciences (£4,184,000); Graduate Entry Medical School (£3,009,000); and Research Capital - Robotics (£441,000). Total: (£18,243,000).

Belfast: Greater Belfast Development (£25,000,000); Connected Health Living Laboratory (£143,000); Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (£270,000); Integrated Diagnostics Laboratory (£339,000); Ulster Virtual Production Studio (£537,000); HE Research Capital – Sport Lab (£353,000); and HE Research Capital - Digital Twin for Healthcare Hub (£117,000). Total: (£26,759,000).

Coleraine: Coleraine Sports Facilities (£4,522,000); Coleraine Campus Rationalisation Phases 1&2 (£7,311,000); Coleraine Campus Rationalisation Phase 3 (£6,075,000); Psychological Science Laboratory Equipment (£116,000); EMPOWER - Essential capacity revitalisation of BMSRI Mass Spectrometry Centre (£637,000); and Research Capital - Market Intelligence Lab (£248,000). Total: (£18,909,000).

Ulster University cross-campus: RFID Implementation at all Campus Libraries (£325,000); Telephony System Upgrade (£15,000); Estates Refurbishment Project - Phase 1 (£6,507,000); Estates Refurbishment Project - Phase 2 (£13,679,000); Estates refurbishment 20-21 (£2,712,000); UU Timetabling & Space Utiliisation (£466,000); UU Student Recruitment System (£466,000); UU Student Recruitment System (£378,000); UU Digitisation project (£1,759,000); Estates refurbishment 21-22 (£2,070,000); Data Centre & Disaster Recovery Construction project (£1,548,000); Research Grants System (£434,000); Inshore Survey Vessel (£159,000); Mass Spectrometry Imaging Equipment (£126,000); UU Cyber Security (£2,678,000); and Minor Work (£2,451,000). Total: (£35,303,000).

£385m cost of expanding Magee College to 7,500 includes funding already committed