Bartholomew says Magee College up to 6,500 students four years early and repeats 10,000 commitment

Professor Paul Bartholomew outlined progress at a briefing of the NI Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

The UU Vice Chancellor recalled that when he first took office he had indicated reaching 10,000 students would not have been possible under the environment that then existed.

“So we've set about trying to change that environment. I predicted at that point through my own modelling that we would get to 6,500 students naturally by about 2028-29.

"We will be at that now so that's the difference that the investments are making. We've made investments in real estate into that campus, opened a building just a few weeks ago, we've got more students than ever,” he said.

Magee College’s expansion is a ‘catalyst for growth’ that he is absolutely committed’ to, he said.

“It's why I've been signed up for that and indeed have been committed to growing that campus before there was the current intervention around the Taskforce.

"I'd made those commitments and spent much of my time looking at that. I have to say it's a much harder project than people think that it is. At the early days of this discourse people were saying ‘why don't you just move 1,000 students?’

"I'm afraid it doesn't really work like that. There is whole bunch of things in terms of student choice, infrastructure,” he insisted.

Prof. Bartholomew was asked about discussion papers published in 2021 and 2027 by the Royal Irish Academy that acknowledged historical underinvestment in Derry and called for a ‘federal cross-border tertiary education institution’ to be considered.

Labour MP Mike Kane asked: “Do we need another independent higher education sector to drive growth in the city?”

The Vice-Chancellor replied: “No, I don't believe so and I take issue with the fact that's its a Royal Irish Academy report. It isn't. It is a report that was written by a single author and actually, I think it was an insufficiently robust paper. I've been extraordinarily critical at it.”

He added: “I think there should be as much competition as there should be. But the whole campaign for an independent university in Derry is completely flawed. It's an idea, its not a plan and the RIA paper does nothing on that. It's notable, isn't it, that the RIA puts on a statement that it's the view of the authors? There's a reason for that.”

During the briefing Prof. Bartholomew said UU’s City Deal projects could be engines of growth but warned of a lack of investment, stating: “We are an enormous engine and resource. If I am being frank, I think, over recent years there have been funding constraints on universities.

"We've gone backwards in a number of funding measures and that is systematic disinvestment in universities when we accept over 8 to 1 benefit to cost ratios, we accept that they are engines for growth.”

He also lamented the level of red tape attached to City Deals.

"I wouldn't say it is full steam ahead as the City Deals investments and so forth are absolutely steeped in layers and layers of baroque bureaucracy and from my perspective a little bit of delay too,” declared the professor.