Could Derry be the island’s next big university city?

Why does Derry have one third the student population of Galway or Limerick, cities of comparable size? The question was asked two weeks ago by John Daly, chief economist with the Northern and western Regional Assembly.

A large part of the answer is that Ulster University, the multi-site institution that runs Derry’s Magee campus, is more interested in comparisons with Glasgow and Manchester.

Ulster believes it must offer undergraduates a big city experience. It has spent the past decade developing a new central Belfast campus, replacing a site on the city’s outskirts. The historic college at Magee and another campus at Coleraine, the university’s headquarters, have suffered benign if not wilful neglect.

The focus on Belfast is rational, within the limits of Ulster’s ambition. An urban location significantly boosts the appeal of a mid-ranking university. British cities are the relevant comparator as cross-Border student flows within Ireland are negligible, due to divergent school systems and other bureaucratic obstacles beyond the university’s control. Bean-counters keep coming back to these arguments whenever a vision for Derry is raised.

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Some campaigners note a small city can succeed in the UK market if it plays up its charms and offers hard-to-find courses, such as medicine

When Ulster announced its new Belfast campus, it promised a similar investment at Derry that never materialised. Obfuscation was alleged by campaigners and politicians.

A fresh commitment to expand Magee was made by Stormont and the British and Irish governments in 2020. The plans include a new medical college.

Last month, it emerged civil servants have advised against the expansion. They fear Stormont would be liable for huge overspends and unpaid loans, as happened with Ulster’s Belfast campus – but unlike in Belfast, it would not attract more students.

This is all understood by campaigners in Derry. They use the examples of Galway and Limerick to show what should be possible with a leap of faith – a ‘build it and they will come’ philosophy. Some campaigners note a small city can succeed in the UK market if it plays up its charms and offers hard-to-find courses, such as medicine. Lincoln is seen as a model.

Others have given up on Ulster and Stormont. They want Magee made independent or a new university established, with membership of the National University of Ireland and the Irish Government taking a lead role.

In the Dáil last week, Fine Gael TD Colm Burke called on the Government to help develop “a major third-level institution” in Derry, to be named after John Hume. Tánaiste Michael Martin replied by referring to €40 million for a new building for Magee, pledged through the shared island initiative. This is an unprecedented investment and there is enormous potential for cross-Border partnerships. However, it is a fantasy to imagine the Republic could set up a new university in Northern Ireland.

The 1960s decision to build the new University of Ulster at Coleraine epitomises a sense of sectarian discrimination against Derry that has haunted Northern Ireland since. This perception contains a fundamental truth about the old unionist government but it gets basic facts wrong, causing lessons to be missed.

Stormont wanted the new university in the new city of Craigavon. When nationalists and unionists in Derry protested, the decision was referred to an independent panel of academics, the Lockwood committee, half from England and half from Northern Ireland. It surprised everyone by recommending Coleraine, but nobody could refute its arguments. Magee was too small and its site too cramped for expansion, the committee said. If a campus was built on the city’s outskirts Magee would have to close, which nobody in Derry wanted. Coleraine offered a huge greenfield site, with holiday accommodation in nearby resorts for term-time student housing – a cost-saving approach used in England. As a compromise, Magee was kept open but it withered once Coleraine was built. An attempt was made to address this in 1984, when Ulster was reconstituted as a multi-campus university including Magee, but decline continued.

Much of Lockwood’s reasoning is now redundant. Greenfield campuses have lost their postwar shine; it would be acceptable to expand Magee across multiple sites in the city centre. Private investors will build and run student accommodation with no public liability. A market is developing in commercial loans for university expansion. Loans are cheap because lenders assume governments will always bail universities out. Clarifying such responsibilities could help Derry access finance while addressing Stormont’s concerns. US investors might be interested – they pioneered such loans in Britain.

Although Ulster seems institutionally incapable of taking its Derry site seriously, there is little prospect of it relinquishing control. A Sinn Féin-led executive could advance the issue: in 2014, Martin McGuinness said Magee could eventually become independent.

A new university seems implausible, as it would have to compete with Magee and become a degree-awarding body from scratch, a daunting process under UK law. So a more autonomous arrangement within Ulster might be the solution – devolution for Derry. A leap of faith is certainly worth more creative consideration.