Guest Column: New cross-border body is next step to North West University

It is time to end the ‘piecemeal approach’ and instead set up a top-level, cross-border structure to develop a new university, and regional development plan, for the North West.

The Derry University Group has been saying we need a Marshall Plan for more than a decade now, so it is very refreshing to see this approach echoed by the Royal Irish Academy in its recent Irish government-commissioned report on our grossly underdeveloped university sector.

Everybody whose child ever took the boat across to Liverpool - two-thirds of them never coming back - should take the time to read the excellent new RIA paper.

Inter alia, it describes current piecemeal development practices as ‘wasteful and anachronistic’, concluding: ‘‘The relative underinvestment in tertiary education in the greater north-west has had major negative consequences for the development of the region.

“The rectification of this anomaly necessitates major joint affirmative actions by the Irish and UK governments and the Northern Ireland Executive. This should involve the development of a clear vision and programme to enable the region to fulfil its potential and find its niche within the economies of Northern Ireland and Ireland.

‘...Ultimately, spatial planning of tertiary education and other development is a responsibility of governments. It is unrealistic and unfair to delegate such planning to tertiary institutions, which will, inevitably, have many competing pressures.’

The Academy, which co-ordinated a series of seminars in the North West over the past two years as part of its research, identified that the ‘lack of political will’ had been ‘a key impediment’ to growth - and echoed the view that ‘an ambitious regionally-focused strategy, underpinned by independent expertise’ was urgently needed.

Significantly, the RIA is firmly of the opinion that any new Higher Education ‘cluster’, or standalone university, in the North West should be independent of Belfast and of Ulster University.

It highlights concern (alarm) that the capital is profiting at the expense of the North West, due to ‘the disproportionate concentration of students in Belfast (82.6 percent of the NI total), which is more than double the figure for any of the other capital cities’.

It also warns about the ‘difficult, if not impossible’ challenges in managing split-campus universities anchored in a capital city, such as Ulster University: ‘...Tension is likely to arise for multi-campus universities spread across both more affluent and disadvantaged areas, where the priorities and external pressures relative to different campus locations and campuses may be difficult, if not impossible, to manage within a unitary governance structure.’

The group of three which co-ordinated the new report was chaired by former UU Vice-Chancellor and recently-retired RIA Vice-President Gerry McKenna. They propose that students could be encouraged and incentivised to come to the North West as a means of restoring regional balance.

This could, they suggest, take the form of reduced student fees or increased student maintenance to those attending the new NWU.

They have also called for independent scrutiny of the Northern Ireland university sector, the only HE sector on the islands without an oversight body.

The report states: ‘It is difficult to envisage a HE oversight body supporting the current geographically skewed distribution of HE places or concluding that such concentration would be in the interests of economic and cultural development or social cohesion.’

Of the two HE models considered for the region, the Academy favours a new federal university over a HE cluster in the North West. It states: “The development of a federal crossborder tertiary education institution merits serious consideration.

“A federal cross-border tertiary education institution would be made up of existing constituent institutions but with an overall governance structure involving coordinated oversight of planning across the region, promoting collaboration and eliminating wasteful and unnecessary duplication. In such a scenario, each jurisdiction would continue to be responsible for the funding of its colleges and campuses.

‘...It is recommended, therefore, that a feasibility study examining the options available should be commissioned by the Irish and UK governments and the NI Executive as an important next step.’

The Derry University Group holds that a new cross-border structure, dedicated to the development of the federal North West University, is the next necessary move for the governments.

The RIA report is the most significant intervention in the NW university sector - and its economic sector - in a generation.

If implemented, as it should be, the blueprint will transform both sides of the border in the North West.

The report must be the cornerstone of every economic discussion and development plan for the next decade.

We commend Professor McKenna and the Academy for the vision and determination - and all those who have supported the 60 year campaign for a university for the North West.