Chair of the Magee Taskforce Stephen Kelly on the potential to meet the 10,000 student target by 2032
Chair of the Magee Taskforce Stephen Kelly on the potential to meet the 10,000 student target by 2032
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00:00So what we've done is we committed to the Minister that we would produce an action plan by the end of the year,
00:05but rather than waiting for a year to be lost, we said we'd produce an interim report.
00:11So we've published that today.
00:12What it does is it shows that the growth of this campus has already begun
00:17and the means in which to make that sticky so that we finally meet that expectation,
00:22that demand and that agreement in the NDNA around achieving at least 10,000 students at this campus as soon as possible.
00:29And you have put on the report that this is possible by 2032.
00:33This is an achievable timeline?
00:35Absolutely.
00:36Obviously, that's subject to Stormont turning up with the necessary funding,
00:41not just for capital projects but for additional student numbers.
00:45It's incumbent on, and there's an opportunity here for the private sector in terms of developing student accommodation,
00:51as we've seen in other parts of the North and, indeed, parts of the UK.
00:56And it's dependent upon the processes, whether those are planning, whether those are water or other statutory agencies,
01:03turning up and delivering on behalf of DERI and not just the Department for the Economy or the university themselves.
01:08A couple of the obstacles that we've looked at in the past is the capital investment required for teaching accommodation,
01:13student accommodation.
01:14There's also the recurrent funding that's going to have to fund these places at all.
01:19Maximum student number cap, that has to be raised.
01:22You've mentioned this, and you've looked at ways of possibly raising revenue.
01:26Do you backfill that?
01:28So, on the latter, in terms of funding actual student numbers themselves, there's essentially two options.
01:35The first one is that there is an increasing number of school-leaving age young people coming through,
01:41so the demand for university in places will be increasing over the next number of years that are ahead.
01:47Those people have an expectation that they want to go to university,
01:49and I think it's incumbent on the department to provide them with that opportunity and to fund those places,
01:54specifically here at McGee.
01:56If they don't choose to do that, then it is about moving and shifting more students out of Belfast, in particular,
02:03back into the McGee campus.
02:06Both of those options get us to the 10,000 number.
02:09The university's already, over the last couple of years, started shifting programs and students to the campus.
02:15That will continue, no doubt about that.
02:17But there's a choice there to be made by the minister and the department.
02:20Do they want to fund more students, or is this about simply just shifting students out of Belfast?
02:26You've landed on a 700 million figure.
02:29Is that mostly capital investment that's going to be required, or does that include the recurring funding as well?
02:34It's kind of a mixture of both, but in terms of capital, there's an indicative price of in and around £685 million.
02:42Of that, about 40% of it is in student accommodation, which will inevitably come from the private sector.
02:50The other money, about £406 million, is the capital requirement for teaching, research, and space for academics at the campus themselves.
02:59The good news is that a lot of that money has either already been committed or in the process of being secured through the business cases.
03:07So the gap here isn't as big as the 700 number.
03:10We're not starting from zero and trying to get to 700.
03:13Lots of the money's already there.
03:15Lots of players have an opportunity to fund this growth, and we certainly think it's achievable.
03:19And as a dairyman, it's less than the price of a bus station in Belfast.
03:23That's it.
03:24And as that, as somebody who – and you're the chair of the taskforce, but you're a proud dairyman, you're a civic patriot.
03:30You want to see this 10,000 figure as much as anybody else.
03:34Are you more hopeful now, having had a look under the hood, so to speak, over the last six months that this will happen?
03:40I was educated at this campus.
03:42My sister graduated in accountancy from this campus.
03:45My brother just graduated recently in social work from this campus.
03:49My son's studying on this campus.
03:51I'm born and bred and continue to live here and haven't chose to live anywhere else.
03:55This is the single biggest transformative economic project, not just for the city but for the entire Northwest.
04:01We would not have done this job unless we were going to be clear that we wanted to ensure it was delivered.
04:06The partners that we've engaged with are all very positive about coming and supporting it.
04:10It's in the draft program for government.
04:12It's in the ministerial three-year plan.
04:14It's in the minister's business plan for this current year.
04:16Funding has already begun to be provided.
04:19There's a pathway through now to that 10,000 number as quick as we can.