Chair of the Magee Taskforce Stephen Kelly on the potential to meet the 10,000 student target by 2032

Derry Journal

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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.

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