Linda Moore

Positive growth. Though a quirk with these figures is that the Minister is quoting 4060 students in 2020/21. In 2009/10 there were 4032 students at Magee. By 2014/15 there were 5098. So if we work from 2015 it'd be growth of 32% rather than 66%. The uncomfortable question for Ulster University and Stormont Ministers is, why did they allow those numbers at Magee to plummet by about 1000 from 2015-2021? And why did the Executive prioritise Belfast with a £370m build that gifted it 84% of the North's students instead of investing in Magee? You may say that's in the past. It is not, what we're seeing with job cuts and Magee projects being cut/scaled back today is all directly and intimately linked. Most of the growth at Magee in recent years came from Allied Health courses moving, which had to be prised away from Belfast, while post-grad remained in Belfast. It's well known that growth is easier when the bar is so low to begin with. All the hard yards lie ahead. Remember, 10,000 isn't some magic number when a city of a similar size in Galway has 25,000. Credit where it is due but the wheels have well and truly come off. Anyone pretending otherwise is only fooling themselves. If someone can tell me how cutting 450 staff, scrapping a sports dome and downsizing a medical school are positive signs that the train remains on track then koombaya m'Lord, give me some of that feel-good energy... The hard reality is, Belfast was prioritised by the Executive with a £370m build. That blew the Higher Education budget. UU/Stormont are now trying to save face by pretending Magee actually matters. If it truly mattered then Sinn Fein and SDLP leadership would say that the 84% Belfast has is unacceptable and needs to be rebalanced — at pace. To casual observers, saying Magee deserves 10,000 students is tokenism if parties can't say that 84% — which no other city in Ireland or Britain comes close to — is a scandalous position to be in. And a mess of their making.