Magee Taskforce final report December 16, 2024

Derry Journal

Transcript

00:00I'm very grateful to the task force themselves we set them a very significant challenge in terms of

00:04the time frame and the sheer volume of work that had to be put together in order to produce a very

00:12comprehensive report. So they've delivered that, as they have said already much of the

00:18implementation has begun, is underway in collaboration with the university itself

00:24and so it's very encouraging that not only is the report being published but we've actually

00:27started the work. Now our determination is to deliver on the commitment that was given, it's

00:32now part of the programme for government, it's part of the investment strategy and we will move ahead

00:37with all pace that we can to ensure that this is delivered in the time ahead.

00:40And do you accept all its asks, do you accept the content of the report and do you think you'll be

00:44able to sell it to your executive colleagues? I think there are some parts of it maybe 30 million

00:49plus recurrent funding to get the 10,000 student places funded, no more additional places in

00:54Belfast, all places to be prioritised and Gary are you happy enough with that?

00:58The task force report outlines where they see things going. In terms of the executive commitment

01:03this is already part of the programme for government, this is already part of the investment

01:06strategy, so it's not about selling the expansion of Magee campus to 10,000 students to the executive.

01:12All parties committed to that in NDNA with both governments. The executive has now made it part

01:18of its programme for government and part of its investment strategy. What we need to make sure is

01:22that we keep that impetus, work with the university, work with the task force in the time ahead,

01:26work with the city because this is not just about the university itself, this is about the whole

01:30of Derry and how the city grows in accordance with the growth of the student numbers in the campus

01:35here and make sure that this is delivered in the time that the task force have set out.

01:39What's your reaction having published your final report? It's very ambitious and that

01:42sort of sets out a roadmap to where we can get to 10,000 by 2032 hopefully.

01:47Well today is a milestone day. We've been tasked with one specific job which is

01:54to bring a costed plan with an academic plan sitting alongside it and those enabling factors

01:58to the minister so that he can actually go and support the development of this campus and

02:03achieve that 10,000 target that was committed in NDNA and our role today was to ensure that

02:10that plan is something that is deliverable, that it's timely and it gives the minister

02:17and his colleagues an opportunity to go and ask for the resources that they require

02:20so the university can deliver that 10,000 student campus that we've all been waiting for.

02:28A couple of things that jumped out at me was that ultimately we'll get to 30 million plus a year in

02:34recurrent funding and there was another thing that you've requested that there's no more additional

02:40places, student places in Belfast. It's a request that all this is located in Derry. Are you

02:45confident that the minister can go and persuade his executive colleagues to back that?

02:50Well Belfast is saturated with students. That's the reality. There's about 40,000 plus there.

02:56Even Queen's University Belfast have said that any additional students that would be coming

03:01to Northern and providing opportunities for local people to study at home that those should be

03:05directed towards this campus and they'll concentrate on widening participation. So those numbers are

03:11ours and the minister's committing to those. In terms of the recurrent funding, yes this isn't a

03:17job to get to 10,000 and then just disappear and close everything down. There will be a recurrent

03:22funding but in return for that 38 million is 258 million coming back the other direction. That's

03:27nearly seven times that amount of investment. You ask any business that for every pound that they've

03:33spent it do we get seven pounds back in return for it, they would take your arm off. All the

03:38stakeholders they've all been very positive towards this and you confident that the minister

03:43is going to back this fully? Very confident the minister is going to back this. Very confident

03:47the university is going to back this. Very confident that the city and the city council is going to back

03:51this. Our job is to make sure that all those disappointments that we've had in the past

03:56because we really didn't have a plan, that that's washed away and now that we have not just a

04:02roadmap but a costed plan with an academic plan and enabling projects alongside that that finally

04:08Derry will get that 10,000 student campus delivered which was committed back in 2020.

04:14I'm really pleased to see the report. The report lays out some real specificity in terms of what's

04:19required next and I think that's something that's been lacking in this debate for a number of years.

04:24We've been growing this campus but we've been doing that within the constraints of what I've

04:29called the ecosystem so far and what's happened here is the task force as commissioned by the

04:34minister has really changed that ecosystem to allow us to go further and faster and that's

04:39exactly what's happening in terms of growth. There's a great deal of detail in the plan,

04:42there's a number of specific asks. Are you happy enough they're all in behind all of them? Yeah

04:47we absolutely are. I mean in terms of you know they've not dropped from the sky they've been

04:51squared off by us. They're absolutely stretching. Have we been pushed to what the limits of

04:57achievability are? Absolutely we have but they are the limits of achievability. They don't go

05:02beyond it. Yeah and there is an ask within the report that Belfast doesn't increase in student

05:08places. It's maintained at its current levels and everything is prioritised for Derry.

05:12Is the university happy with that? Very very happy. I mean I couldn't be happy with that.

05:17I think that's absolutely essential in terms of our own campus in Belfast. We've actually been

05:22moving student numbers away from there to here over the last couple of years. That's one of the

05:27things that we've already been doing and you'll see that in the report. But I think that's really

05:31important that we see that the focus has to be on Derry, Londonderry and on the Magee campus here.

05:38Yeah and in practical terms what would be the main obstacles that you would envisage

05:43getting to that 10,000 student number? There are a number of them. They're challenges I think

05:49rather than obstacles. We would need more student accommodation. That's something that we're

05:56already seeing. We're about two years ahead of where I would thought we would be a couple of

06:01years ago. That means that that's kind of stressed our legacy plan in terms of student accommodation

06:06but there's a tremendous opportunity for private developers to come in in relation to that.

06:12And of course any of that building projects that we're going to see coming. There's a lot of

06:19building projects going on at once and they can be a little bit unpredictable but we're up for it.

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