AN EXTERNAL review of the University of Ulster’s operations conducted 18 years ago, which recommended the continued expansion of the Magee campus and warned against ‘overtrading’ on other campuses, has been unearthed by researchers and sent to Colmcille Press, following the publication of Garrett Hargan’s investigative history ‘A Scandal in Plain Sight’.
The full, three-volume report - which few people have ever seen - is not available from the UU website but will be made available from Colmcille Press.
It shows that in the period 1998 to 2005, Magee’s full-time student numbers grew by a massive 65%, from 1754 to 2893 – a factor singled out as ‘a key achievement’ by the Review Committee, which was chaired by the eminent academic, the late Sir Graeme Davies.
The Committee stated that ‘historical imbalances’ between campuses should continue to be addressed and priority given to student numbers and the range of courses at Magee: ‘In terms of future growth the University has firmly decided to accord priority to the further development of the Magee campus.
‘We support this strongly, not least in view of the University’s key role with other partners in the complex processes of regional economic and social regeneration.
‘...The University should continue to press the strong case for further strategic and targeted expansion at Magee, and we recommend that the DEL [Department of Education and Learning] should explore with the University how this objective might most effectively be achieved.’
The long-buried review warned UU against taking on too much and trying to be ‘all things to all men’. Instead, it recommended ‘consolidation’ in Coleraine and Jordanstown, ‘modest growth’ in Belfast but ‘a renewed priority for growth’ at Magee.
It explained that there was now ‘a critical mass of disciplines’ at Magee that would provide a healthy basis for further growth.
‘We also note that there are now real prospects that the University will be able to augment its estate near Magee.
‘The importance of a sizeable university base for the economic development of a sub-region has been well attested in numerous studies over the past quarter of a century.
‘Moreover, there is widespread support both in the University and among stakeholders in the North-West for further expansion at Magee.’
The Review Committee also backed plans for the ‘North-South’ medical school in the North West (which would take a further 15 years to open): ‘The clear evidence of this review period is that the University has both the capacity and the determination to act as a focal point for economic regeneration in Northern Ireland’s second city and the surrounding area.’
Crucially, the 2006 report was never referenced by either the university or the civil service, or indeed by anyone else, during the discussions which began in 2007-2008 towards relocating Jordanstown to Belfast.
This controversial move - which eventually saw UU open its new York Street campus in 2021 - appears to have been driven purely with a view towards profit; it was certainly not dictated by either economic demand or necessity - or by any academic justification. The outline business case in 2010 suggested that, because it was going to cost £70m-£75m to maintain Jordanstown over the next decade, if its lands were instead sold for £150m, then the university could effectively have £220m-£225m with which to build the new campus in Belfast. But of course the eventual cost to the university - and the taxpayer - has already been more than £400m.
In 2008, the University for Derry committee met with senior UU officials to discuss its blueprint to establish a city-centre base for an expanded third-level campus in the North West - but were specifically told a city-centre build was not ‘viable’. Many aspects of this blueprint were then adopted for the new North Belfast campus.
Meanwhile, the proposal to expand Magee to 9400 full-time students, the centrepiece of Derry’s ‘One Plan’ in 2010, was dropped by the Stormont government in 2015, as neither UU nor Stormont had the capacity or resources to manage the competing Belfast and Derry priorities. And the decade 2010 to 2020 ended with yet another broken promise and no rise in Magee’s student numbers. [See main book].
Upon its inception in 1983-84, UU was mandated to have regular seven-year scrutiny reviews, but the 2006 one appears to have been the last. We could not find any record as to why they were discontinued.
The North’s Higher Education supervisory committee, the HE Council, also wound up at around this time, effectively removing any oversight of UU’s operational performance.
There has been no meaningful, external oversight of UU since that period. And the Royal Irish Academy has now twice called (2021 & 2024) for the establishment of a new Higher Education scrutiny committee for Northern Ireland.
Interestingly, according to the review, Magee staff numbers were 495 in 2005, as against just 579 in 2023.
