Magee 10,000 student taskforce to deliver report this year, says new chair Stephen Kelly
Magee 10,000 student taskforce to deliver report this year, says new chair Stephen Kelly
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00:00 You will be aware that there has been a commitment for some time in and around the expansion of the facilities here at the University of Nagis to bring it up to 10,000 students.
00:10 That's a commitment that was made by all of the parties to the Executive and by both governments.
00:15 The primary responsibility in working with Elthshire University in that regard is the Department of the Economy and we're very pleased that we're able to assist them on that journey.
00:27 But we also had in mind that the expansion plan for Magee involves much more than just simply the University or indeed the Department.
00:38 This is a whole Executive-wide commitment and we expect other Ministers when required to fit into that commitment.
00:45 But we also wanted to create a group here which would assist all of us, including the city itself, in preparing.
00:52 Because it's not simply a matter of opening more courses here and bringing in more students.
00:57 There's an entire infrastructure to be built around the University here to support an expansion of that size and level over the next number of years.
01:06 There already has been very significant work and very significant investment from the University here.
01:10 There is more work to be done under city deals but we still have that ambition to go beyond that to the 10,000 pupils.
01:17 We'll do that again when we get to that stage. That's not a final point for the University here but that is where we have committed to in this part of the journey.
01:26 And beyond that, in my view, the sky's the limit.
01:28 We also are working very closely with our counterparts in Dublin.
01:33 There is a bit of change going on around the ministerial system there at the moment but I've already had a conversation with Simon Harris.
01:40 He may well have a higher level in the government but I know from my conversation with him he's very committed to the North West.
01:47 Very committed to working with the University facility here but also working with the college in Leicester County as well and seeing the synergies between both of those.
01:54 So the opportunities for growth here are enormous and as people in Derry and the North West have rightly identified, the growth of the University provision here is a catalyst for much greater economic development and growth in the North West as a whole.
02:08 So I'm very delighted to announce that Stephen Kelly, who's a local man with a huge amount of experience, has agreed to take up the chair of the UU Derry Taskforce.
02:19 And the deputy chair will be taken up by Nicholas Kelly, again someone of a very significant experience.
02:24 We have other members who have agreed to join that. Again, people of significant interest in this area and significant experience.
02:31 And we will supplement that further because some of the other organisations we've asked to provide people for us in the process of doing that.
02:37 So we see our role in working very closely with the taskforce, ensuring that they present to us the challenges that they see that need to be met so that we can do that right across government, within the University and with local council here as well, local economic agencies here as well,
02:54 so that we can all pull together in the same direction to achieve what we want to achieve for this University and for this city and for this region right across the North West.
03:03 So I'm obviously very pleased that the Vice-Chancellor Paul Bartholomew is here with us this morning as well.
03:08 And Paul has always, even before I came into this office, has always struck me with his commitment to this particular project and the commitment of the University to this project.
03:17 And every time we meet we're talking about further expansion plans and what can be done on this site and beyond this site to achieve that.
03:25 So very pleased to be here today. I'm going to ask Stephen just to say a few words as the new chair of this group.
03:30 Thank you very much Minister. I'm very pleased to take up this role. I've obviously been a citizen of the city, chosen to live here all my entire life,
03:41 and it's quite clear that the city's ambitions will only be met by the expansion of this campus, of Ulster University.
03:48 So I'm very pleased to accept the role of chair of the committee.
03:52 What I would say is that we are going to be working very fast, as quickly as we possibly can.
03:58 The conversations began on this task force with myself just about a week ago.
04:03 A number of meetings have already taken place. A team has been stood up within the department itself.
04:09 And I think that's recognition of your own personal commitment to ensure that this project is being delivered.
04:14 I know you've had a particular interest in ensuring that the North West is well served in terms of higher and further education.
04:21 And this is a testament to that. My own personal experience working with the Minister, particularly around COVID time,
04:27 was that when there was an issue to be addressed, the Minister stepped forward and took action as quickly as he possibly could.
04:33 In addition to that, I've had a number of conversations with the Vice-Chancellor and indeed other leaders in the university over the last number of months.
04:41 I'm absolutely convinced that Paul, through his leadership and that of his colleagues, wants to deliver on this target.
04:48 This was an agreement made back in January 2020. New decade, new arrangement.
04:54 As the Minister has said, the task force is being constructed. A number of people have already been approached and agreed to participate.
05:01 There are some gaps that have been identified in that with the department and we're already beginning to fill those in the weeks ahead.
05:08 What I would say is that we're hoping that this is a very short, sharp piece of work.
05:13 I've committed to ensuring that there's at least an interim report before the end of the summer.
05:19 And that by the end of this year, in order to allow the Minister to go to his colleagues in the Executive and the Finance Minister in particular,
05:26 to secure the funding, that there's time given for that.
05:29 So we're hoping to have a report delivered to the Minister before the end of this year, probably at the beginning of December.
05:34 I'm very pleased to take on this role. I started my own career just across the road in Carrickmore House.
05:40 And I've just dropped my son off at Foyle Arts Building, where he's studying here.
05:44 So this is a very personal campus for me. It's a very personal campus for the entire city.
05:49 And our ambitions, our economic ambitions and our social ambitions as a city, will only be fulfilled when we get this job done. Thank you.
05:56 Thanks very much, Stephen. Did you want to say anything, Paul?
05:59 Oh yeah, I'd love to say something. Thank you. And thanks very much for everybody being present today.
06:03 And thank you, Minister, for setting up this task group and for Stephen and for Nicola for taking on leadership of the task group.
06:09 I think it's really important, and I'm aware of my own agency in this space.
06:13 I'm really passionate about this place. And people will be forgiven to think, well, what's he talking about?
06:18 He's passionate about this place because he's the person who's gone out and said that there's a limit of 6,500.
06:23 But I think what people always forget or miss out, that I said, under the status quo, in terms of that operating environment,
06:29 and what we're seeing here, is a hope. What's going to change?
06:35 And I think that that will give us an operating environment that will allow us to move forward in that sense.
06:40 And I hope that people do understand that that passion has been around trying to tell things how I have seen it.
06:48 And sharing that passion behind the scenes, as I've done for a couple of years now, with all those who have been interested in that.
06:55 And I know, Minister, that you've been interested for a number of years. We've had conversations, even when you were finance minister.
07:00 And swapping figures and so forth and trying to show plans and so forth.
07:05 And it's really good to see those commitments that were in NDNA now coming through with the mechanism.
07:10 And of course, we understand that NDNA was built a while ago, but we had COVID in the interim and so forth.
07:15 But it's really good that we've got off the ground now. And I think that I feel fantastically positive about growth.
07:21 I absolutely believe in this campus. I do think that this is a great city.
07:26 We were talking just before about you only have to start walking around the city and see how it sits on the river and so forth.
07:32 That it's a fantastic place to invest in. And this is a really great opportunity for us to move this agenda forward.
07:39 So I thank everybody very much.
07:41 There certainly will be plans to talk to everyone who has an interest in the advancement of this university as a catalyst for broader economic growth.
07:49 People who are in that group have a different view of how this should be done.
07:53 We're here to do this through the vehicle of University, Ulster University, which I think is the most advanced and the most ready vehicle to do this.
08:00 If people have an idea to go back to scratch and start again and create an entirely new university, well, I think that's a much, much longer journey.
08:07 We're keen to get this done quickly. The people that I speak to, and I'm a very frequent visitor to Dernie, even in office and out of office,
08:13 the people that I speak to are very clear that they want to see rapid economic development in the North West.
08:18 The North West has been held back, has been ignored for far too long.
08:21 I think we're now into a better place going forward. We will have conversations with the finance minister.
08:25 We're still operating now. We're back to an annual budget cycle. That's beyond our control.
08:29 We don't dictate the length of the budget cycle.
08:32 But we will, as we had a conversation yesterday at the Executive, about an executive commitment to Strewell Campus.
08:39 Even though that is a very costly project, there was an executive commitment to that, and everybody wants to honour executive commitments.
08:45 There's an executive and both government commitment to the expansion of this campus up to 10,000 students.
08:51 What we want the task force group to do, to work with us and to work with the university, and then work with the entire executive and both governments, is to chart a course to get to that.
09:01 Now, that's going to be a task work I'm not going to pre-empt today, because we know some of the figures to get us up to 6,500,
09:08 and what is required, what we want to do is chart that course towards 10,000, and then make sure that that is honoured in terms of the commitment that was given by all parties and both governments.
09:17 Will it be a 10-year period?
09:19 I can't say. I wouldn't expect it to be that long, but I can't say sitting here today.
09:24 That's why we put a task force in place to work with us and to work with the university and to report back.
09:28 And again, we will be alerting the executive to what spend is anticipated over a number of years.
09:34 Capital spends don't happen. If somebody talks about a figure of 365 million, that's not for next year, that's over a period of years, that's the way capital spend works.
09:42 And what we would like to be able to do then is to highlight to the finance department and to the executive as a whole,
09:48 this is what it's going to cost, this is what's going to be required to get us to this, because we've had that ambition, what we now want to do is put some flesh on the bones of that ambition.