'North West has a fiscal duty to enact new university options'
Conal McFeely of the Derry University Group says public representatives in the North West must immediately suspend all City Deal payments to Ulster University.
He also called on the Irish government to appoint an independent regulator to oversee its £38m investment at Magee College, which UU currently controls.
Mr McFeely was speaking in advance of tomorrow's meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council, which will discuss UU's recent announcement of 450 job losses and a freeze on capital spending.
'Council has a fiscal responsibility to its ratepayers to suspend all payments to UU, which - as we repeatedly warned - is failing to deliver on commitments to Derry and the North West,' said Mr McFeely.
'Instead of delivering 10,000 students and hundreds of new jobs by 2030 as guaranteed by the two governments in New Decade New Approach (2020), UU is set, yet again, to fail Derry so it can serve Belfast.
'UU is now holding Derry hostage as a marker against its massive, self-inflicted Belfast debt. Neither UU nor Stormont has any interest in this region; every single minuscule change to the Magee campus has resulted from direct instruction from London and Dublin.
'The UU Taskforce's claims that growth in Derry can continue - while UU is announcing massive job cuts and a building freeze - defy basic logic. Scores of workers in the North West face the loss of their jobs, and hundreds more jobs promised to the region will never materialise.
'Council needs to summon the Stormont Economy Minister, along with senior representatives of the British and Irish governments, to Derry to explain how they intend to deliver on their 2020 commitments to this region. In the interim, all governments must ensure independent oversight of UU's processes, which led to this catastrophe. We need independent scrutiny of Higher Education in the North such as exists in all other parts of these island, and Dublin needs to appoint an independent regulator to oversee, and secure, its investment in this region.
'The NI Strategic Investment Board, which is owed tens of millions by UU, can no longer act as an impartial advisor to our Council. The North West needs its own cross-border strategy board - just as it needs its own independent cross-border university. Council must seize this opportunity for change and enact new university partnerships for Magee with the South, as per the recommendations of the Royal Irish Academy.'
ENDS
