'Massive gap' as thousands more student accommodation units needed for Derry university expansion

At a Special Full Council Meeting on Monday, Members were presented with the Taskforce’s expansion report and action plan, which was published in December and aims to deliver 10,000 students at the Derry campus by 2032.

Taskforce Chair, Stephen Kelly, said five individual sites had been secured between Strand Road and Queens Quay, which will be used for the development of a “multi-disciplinary facility along the Quay”.

Mr Kelly noted that the recently-acquired Timber Quay office block will house the university’s entire School of Engineering and Computing as of this September, meaning the “centre of gravity of the university is moving away from the Northern Road area and towards the Strand Road, along the river, and towards the City Centre”.

He added: “This is really important not just from a regeneration point of view, but also in terms of taking stress off communities that are already feeling stressed by population growth along the Northland Road.”

Mr Kelly noted that student numbers at Magee will be capped at 6,500 for “another couple of years” to allow other new teaching facilities to be completed, and only 40 percent of students choose to live in areas surrounding the campus, which “reflects the lack of availability of purpose-built accommodation or private sector accommodation”.

“The university have identified an additional 150 beds for those additional students that are coming [in September],” he added. “There’s still more beds required for September and the university are working to meet the demand.”

“[Ulster] University currently manage 831 units [and] they believe that could rise to 2,000 units in total, but there’s still a gap somewhere in the region of [between] 3,600 and 5 ,600 potential units that could be required [by 2032].

“We can’t be seen to be influencing the [planning application] process, but we’ve quite clearly signalled, and we’ve made acquisitions to show, that this is a project that needs to move towards the river [and] City Centre.”

SDLP councillor Rory Farrell said there was a “massive gap” in student accommodation provision, and said he hoped this would be filled by “the private sector in the form of purpose-built student accommodation”.

Councillor Farrell said: “We want to see student accommodation move along the Foyle, towards the City Centre, and away from the Northland area.”

“We have representatives from Concerned Residents Around Magee (CRAM) who want that to happen as well, so what is the plan for student accommodation?

“You are going to issue a [developers’] prospectus, so is there a contingency plan if the market does not react? If the market does not fill that gap, what happens next?”

Mr Kelly conceded that accommodation was the “single biggest barrier” to expansion and also the “biggest point of frustration for residents”.

He concluded: “This is important to us all, it’s important to the entire city, so it’s really important that their voices are not just heard but actually their messages are carried forward and delivered upon.”

Andrew Balfour,

Local Democracy Reporter.