Magee College preferred forUU School of Health Sciences

UU has now settled on Magee as its preferred option for the relocation of 500 undergraduate course places.

The proposed establishment of a Graduate Entry Medical School at Magee, the City Deal and the presence of C-TRIC at Magee and Altnagelvin were influential in the selection of Derry as the preferred site.

According to an UU options’ appraisal, moving all of the School’s radiography, physiology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, podiatry, radiotherapy and speech and language therapy places to Derry is the best way forward.

Back in 2015 the university announced its intention of relocating the School from the moribund Jordanstown campus to Coleraine.

However, following an engagement exercise UU has now said its undergraduate provision should be moved to Derry while postgraduate provision should take place in Belfast.

“When the original decision was reached to move the provision to Coleraine there was no intention to pursue the opening of a Graduate Entry Medical School.

“The tacit approval for the commencement of the Medical School significantly improves opportunities arising from subject adjacencies and potential synergies on the Magee Campus. Similarly the progress on City Deal investments in both the North West and Belfast give rise to a new operational context, particularly the planned Stratified Medicine Innovation Hub.

“Previously the Faculty had sought the views of staff in respect of the radiography and healthcare sciences provision moving into the medical school. The overwhelming view of the School was that Health Sciences should stay as a unified School,” the report observes.

Relocating to Derry is actually the second most expensive of seven proposed options with the cumulative deficit estimated at £10.229m, which is £7.280m more than the status quo.

“This is due to capital expenditure of £6.408m to refurbish Magee accommodation, provide additional hot-desking facilities in Belfast and, in the event that staff choose not to make the transition redundancy costs of £1.184m, staff re-grading costs of £0.216m (to attract staff to Magee location), mileage costs of £0.272m and recruitment advertising/head hunter costs of £0.040m offset by additional commercial income of £0.120m and reduced annual space charges of £0.720m,” the analysis states.

However, the Magee option “maximises subject alignment and synergies, bolstering the potential for interprofessional learning”.

“The Magee campus will be the location of both the Graduate Entry Medical School and a new Paramedic degree (under approval). It is also home for the delivery of undergraduate nursing. Such a mix of disciplines creates the opportunity not only for an enriched student experience, but also provides the basis for educational interventions designed to enhance clinical outcomes,” it states.

Derry Alliance councillor Rachael Ferguson said moving the School here would be a major boon to the city.

“This amounts to about 500 student places. We’re talking about UU’s courses for radiographers, dieticians, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and podiatrists.

“Unfortunately UU has paused its public consultation until after the coronavirus pandemic. But it will then re-start the consultation for 12 weeks. That will be the time for all of us to add our voices to get all these Allied Health Provision courses to come to Magee. It’s important to be clear that these courses are additional to the medical school at Magee. I will certainly be telling UU that I agree with its own ‘preferred option’ and I hope the people of the NW will all do the same in due course,” she said.

The options appraisal acknowledges Derry has many selling points as a proposed location for the School.

“This option has the potential to achieve campus sustainability by maximising capital investment in Magee, particularly, with the establishment of the Graduate Entry Medical School.

“This is particularly pertinent given recent pronouncements from NI politicians in support of the GEMS initiative at the Magee campus.

“There are other synergies with Personalised Medicine and C-TRIC both based in Magee and Altnagelvin. The move to the Magee campus will also support economic growth in the North West and fostering of healthy communities within the City and wider environs,” it says.

Back in February Derry City and Strabane District Council passed a resolution calling for the School to be located at UU Magee.

Colr. Ferguson said: “Five hundred more undergraduate students will be good for Derry. This is good news for the university. Good for local students who want to study these courses. Good for staffing in the local health services. Good for local jobs and local businesses. Students and staff need houses and food and books. College visitors need hotels and restaurants. It’s a good news story for the North West in all ways.”

At present the public consultation on the future location of the School of Health Sciences is paused due to COVID-19. It will be relaunched after the emergency to allow people have their say.

“Now, more than ever, we are acutely aware of the contribution of our allied health professions in the context of a health service that faces such enormous challenge in response to COVID19.

“A relaunched public consultation including a full Equality Impact Assessment will run for a period of 12 weeks from the date of relaunch. We sincerely value the input and perspectives of our many healthcare stakeholders, partners and colleagues and will work to ensure that responses and commentary received to date can be taken forward into the revised consultation. Consultees may also provide an additional response when the consultation is relaunched,” said UU.