Competition within a multi-campus, merged university – a zero-sum game?

ABSTRACT

Many reasons exist for mergers in higher education. One of the most pervasive is the pursuit of resources, often expressed in terms of student numbers which give increased power within an education ecology. However, resource dependency is not the only rationale for merger; and history demonstrates that a multi-campus institution may disband as well as amalgamate. The present study is based on Ulster University, a multi-campus institution in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. It is itself the product of merger and embodies the political tensions of Unionism and Nationalism that are endemic in the province. There are indeed struggles over resources which make campus competition look like a zero-sum game in which a gain for one side entails a corresponding loss for the other side. The political dimension is based upon historical narratives that are powerful even when they are not always fact-based; it has potential to destabilise the institution. Yet methods exist of managing inter-campus competition in order to create positive transactions capable of satisfying the needs of all concerned even across different jurisdictions within the island of Ireland. Well-implemented, such structures could help to defuse aggression between interest groups, facilitating optimal use of resources and increasing educational opportunity.

KEYWORDS:

• mergers under pressure
• University for Derry
• Ulster University and the merger
• multi-campus universities and competition
• transnational universities and cross-border corridors

Introduction and aims

A recent article published by the Higher Education Policy Institute bears the title: ‘Are we on the cusp of a wave of university mergers?’ It anticipates great current interest in whether higher education institutions will be more likely to merge with one another as a result of the financial pressures caused by the pandemic. The Higher Education Statistical Agency details ‘mergers and changes’ that have taken place in the United Kingdom between 1994/1995 and 2019/2020; there are literally hundreds of such cases though not all of them involve whole institutions (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/providers/mergers-changes/). JISC, (historically called Joint Information Systems Committee https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/understanding-key-issues-for-mergers-in-further-and-higher-education/) has prepared a vision and strategy kit for institutions likely to undergo structural change in further or higher education including full merger and alternatives. Estermann and Pruvot (2015) have written about the apparently inexorable rise of mergers in Europe. At their best, such amalgamations can help overcome fragmentation, generate critical mass, develop stronger research profiles, gain international collaboration, and increase staff/ student numbers. However, those advantages do not always accrue. There are often long lead-times in merger implementation. The real financial effects of the transformation may take years to become fully apparent, and it may be difficult to establish cultural change. Stensaker, Persson, and Pinheiro (2016) have written of a failed merger in Norway which they attribute to the influence of external stakeholders. Pritchard (1998) has analysed institutional lifecycles including federation, confederation, de-federation and institutional breakup. She has described fissiparous forces in the Universities of Wales (Pritchard 1994) and London (Pritchard 1995) which have both undergone profound institutional change; often this was because the larger colleges or Schools had become intolerant of central planning and control; or because the ‘parts’ resented having to concede money to the centre; or because they did not want to cross-subsidise weaker disciplines or even a central library within a competitive scenario. Sometimes component elements of a large entity became so powerful that they wanted to function independently.

The present article is based upon a merged institution: that of the University of Ulster (re-branded as Ulster University in 2014). As such it fits within the tradition of merger literature, but the causes of stress within it are different from those that have just been mentioned. They are political and historical in nature. Ulster University arose from the 1984 merger between the New University of Ulster and the Ulster Polytechnic. It has four campuses: one in Belfast which is currently being expanded; one about 7 miles away from Belfast in Jordanstown which was the location of the successful Ulster Polytechnic; one in Coleraine, 55 miles away from Belfast; and one in Derry which is 70 miles away from Belfast by road. Derry is situated in its own eponymously named county in Northern Ireland (NI, part of the United KIngdom), but geographically close to the Border which separates NI and Ireland. The county that lies just over the Border is County Donegal which shares most of its political Border with the North. These geopolitical circumstances contribute to a distinctive ethos and identity for the Derry campus of Ulster University.

It bears the name ‘Magee’ after Mrs Martha Magee who in 1845 bequeathed £20,000 in her Will to the Presbyterian Church of Ireland to found a college for theology and the arts; it became known as Magee University College. It is non-denominational but the Presbyterian Church is of the Reformed faith, whereas about 65% of Derry citizens are of the Roman Catholic faith and tend politically towards Irish nationalism. They prefer to call the city ‘Derry’ though legally the name of the city is ‘Londonderry’. The word ‘London’ derives from work of the ‘Irish Society’, a consortium of the London livery companies who built the walled city in the seventeenth century. Those walls are now a great tourist draw. The Charter of 1613 stated ‘that the said city or town of Derry, for ever hereafter … shall be … called the city of Londonderry’, and this was confirmed by a new Charter in 1662. London (meaning ‘the fort of the ships’) represents the British tradition and Derry (‘the oak grove’) represents the Irish tradition. Actually, most people, even Unionists who wish Northern Ireland to continue its existence within the United Kingdom, call it Derry for convenience, but the Troubles which began in 1968 politicised the name, and made it contentious. So here we have a majority Catholic city within the United Kingdom. As ‘Derry/Londonderry’; it is sometimes humorously known as ‘stroke city’ from the ‘/’ forward slash between the words. In 2013, it became the first ever UK City of Culture though local Nationalist politicians seldom used the word ‘British’ in relation to it. As we shall see, this historical background has had an enduring effect upon the multi-campus Ulster University.

The Magee Campus of Ulster University has been the subject of controversy since the establishment of the New University of Ulster (NUU) in 1966 (it opened its doors in 1968). Though the NUU was superseded by the University of Ulster in 1984, tension continues to the present in relation to the composition of the institution. A place was found for Magee not as the primary location of the NUU but as an Institute for Continuing Education (ICE) within the NUU. Previously, undergraduate (UG) teaching had continued at Magee. It was recruitment difficulties at UG level that prompted the establishment of ICE. The fact that Magee did not become the main location and Headquarters of the NUU is often attributed to a Unionist conspiracy to deprive the Derry population of the cultural and financial stimulus that a university might confer. Some adverse publicity is still directed at Ulster University in an attempt to achieve an independent university for the North West of the Province where Derry is the largest city. If successful, this move would break up Ulster University and lead to de-merger.

The aims of the paper are

1. to correct some media misinformation surrounding Magee.

2. to assess the extent to which Magee has been developed and supported by its ‘parent’, Ulster University.

3. to examine the cross-border context taking account of the development of Letterkenny Institute of Technology.

4. to consider the roles of the Jordanstown, Belfast and Coleraine Campuses within Ulster University.

5. to discuss competition within this multi-campus university, and to put forward possible future options for its development.

The methodology applied to the subject is as follows. Since the debate about the continuing existence of Ulster University is conducted in the media and political domain, the first three sections will contain some Preambles drawn from a political speech, a newspaper or a social medium. Such a procedure would once have seemed unorthodox but is now recognised in the concept of ‘altmetrics’ which include non-traditional bibliometrics such as research blogs, mainstream media coverage, Wikipedia and mentions on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Material in these Preambles has power to influence opinion and action. Content will be analysed in the light of evidence drawn from documentation and statistics. The paper will also be informed by input from, and interviews of, a number of higher education experts and stakeholders who were specially contacted for the study. Sections four and five will place the emerging issues in a broader analytical framework.

Misinformation about Magee

Preamble. The New University of Ulster took Coleraine Campus as its Headquarters, and this has continued to its successor institution, the University of Ulster. Was this really due to the power of the Unionist government being exercised against the North West to avoid locating the headquarters of the institution there? Was Lord Adonis correct when in 2020, in the House of Lords, he referred to this as a ‘sectarian scandal’ (Irish News, 17 July 2019)? He assessed the enrolment of Magee as 3,429 – ‘barely more than were available 10 years ago’; and stated that the situation of Higher Education in Northern Ireland was ‘as big an infringement of human rights as the issues relating to abortion and same-sex marriage’ about which the House legislated in 2019 (Hansard 2020)?

A Unionist plot?

It was Sir John Lockwood, Master of Birkbeck College, London, who chaired the Committee to advise about how Northern Ireland could expand its provision of undergraduate places; his report was 300 pages long (Lockwood 1965). In a history of the University of Ulster (O’Brien and Roebuck 2009), evidence is presented that the submission of Magee University College to the Lockwood Committee was far from satisfactory. Magee failed to take sufficient account of the ‘locations’ criteria of the University Grants Committee. Its proposals for student accommodation consisted of a ‘mishmash of private lodgings and hostels’ whereas the Coleraine Promotion Committee referred directly to the given criteria and stated its pro-Coleraine arguments on a targeted point-by-point basis. Magee University College as an institution did not impress members of the Lockwood Committee during their 1964 visit. It manifested an administrative structure that was ‘eccentric, unique … , and barely workable’. The atmosphere was one of ‘complacency’ and ‘lack of dynamism’; Magee senior staff failed to articulate ‘any clear ideas about how the College should develop or what shape any future university in Londonderry should take’. The Committee noted Magee’s ‘cramped physical situation’ and ‘circumscribed mental outlook’. It did not even deem Magee worthy of functioning as a University College. In historical perspective, the case for Magee appears to have been lost by the shortcomings of its own submission, and the Lockwood Committee turned instead to the Coleraine proposal (O’Brien 2009).

The government at Stormont, however, was not pleased with either alternative. It wanted the institution to go to a new town, Craigavon, which was still in the planning stage. The NI Finance Minister, Jack Andrews, refused to meet a Coleraine delegation, and the Commerce Minister, Brian Faulkner, stated that Coleraine was not his preference; in fact, Coleraine received little official encouragement (Draper 2020). Protests were mounted by people from Derry, Armagh (also under consideration as a potential university location) and Lurgan/ Portadown (near the site for Craigavon); they included Unionists as well as Nationalists. The ‘University for Derry’ Committee was chaired by John Hume and it staged a huge cross-community protest. Mr Hume, a future Nobel Peace Prize winner, later stated that the location-decision of Coleraine for NUU electrified the nationalist side … and was the spark that ignited the civil rights movement (http://confeyhistory.weebly.com/coleraine.html). Business in the city closed, and a large motorcade of cars travelled to Stormont. It was led by Albert Anderson, the Unionist mayor of the city. Some 25,000 people, nearly half the adult population of Derry, are estimated to have taken part in the demonstration. However, the case in Coleraine’s favour was much stronger than that for Magee; and it was feared that if Lockwood were not accepted, there would be no second university anywhere. Draper quotes Queen’s Politics Professor John Whyte (a member of the Royal Irish Academy) who observed that Lockwood had ‘produced reasoned arguments’ for Coleraine that Magee could not match. Draper adds that Magee manifested a sense of entitlement: ‘When Sir John visited in 1964, Magee trustees were perhaps too frank about deficiencies in classrooms and laboratories. Tutorials were held in the entrance hall.’

Media representation of Magee

The Derry University Group (DUG) is a successor to the earlier ‘University for Derry’ lobby which campaigned for an independent Higher Education Institution (HEI) for Derry. This lobby group has published a map on Facebook showing the economic impact of HEIs North and South; but significantly it does not even position Coleraine on that map (https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Community/Derry-University-Group-103225737035901/). It presents Magee as having contributed nothing at all to the local economy. At first glance, this looks incredible, even shocking, but at second glance the reason for this assertion emerges. Magee is not an independent stand-alone HEI provider. It is part of Ulster University. The Derry University Group claims that Magee has ‘no income at all of its own’, and that ‘any small income from Magee is controlled by UU and Belfast’. However, it is untrue that the economic impact of Magee on its environment is zero. The question arises whether this is just ignorance or a deliberate ‘mistake’ for political reasons. It does not accord with the reality of the situation.

Some years ago (2014/2015), a document was published for Universities UK: ‘The Economic Impact of Ulster University on the Northern Ireland Economy’ (UUK 2015). The results show that the University overall (i.e. together with its students) makes a significant impact on the economy, generating over £700 million (m) of output in Northern Ireland, producing nearly 8,000 FTE jobs and contributing £385 m to the Northern Ireland Gross Value Added metric. These impact figures were calculated on the basis of a single institution because Ulster University is unitary, not federal, in structure. The author of this present paper contacted the company that had done the calculations for Universities UK (Viewforth Consulting) and asked whether it would be possible to provide a campus breakdown of impact. She received the following response. ‘[It] is nonsense for people to say [Magee] has no economic impact purely because technically the University “head office” is in Coleraine.’ Ursula Kelly, the Founding Director of Viewforth Consulting, provided an estimate of the broadly attributable share of the Ulster University campuses including direct, secondary and student expenditure economic impact. This impact varied from 6.6% for Belfast, 16.7% for Magee, 26.7% for Coleraine and 49.9% for Jordanstown. New research is now needed to make use of the recently developed Northern Ireland Input Output tables which will also take account of cross-border flows with the Republic of Ireland. It is beyond dispute that each campus has an economic impact, and it is therefore misleading to state that Magee has NO economic impact, and to ignore the impact of Coleraine.

Magee in the popular press

Preamble. Derry in general and Magee in particular are often presented in the media and internet as deprived and ill-treated. Thus, McCloskey (Derry Now, 7 June 2020) states that it is ‘outrageous’ that after ‘decades of neglect and discrimination’ UU is now being gifted a significant amount of money for the [Derry] city region, and is being ‘paid to provide what they have been morally obliged to do for half a century’. She writes of ‘the unjust denial of third level provision in Derry’ and calls for a stand-alone university without ‘the shackles of UU’ which she regards as an institution that has ‘ … shown no commitment to “our people”’. She claims that Derry has ‘the highest level of unemployment in NI (70% above NI average)’ and ‘the highest youth emigration’ (40% above average).

Far having subjected Magee to decades of neglect and discrimination, the development of full provision at Magee was the University of Ulster’s top priority (Pritchard and Roebuck 2009, 108). Derek Birley, the first and founding Vice Chancellor of UU after the merger between the Polytechnic and the New University, led the drive for Magee, which was then carried on by his successors. It was a radical and brave strategy on his part and was rooted in a sense of justice and decency. In 1984/1985 at the time of the merger, Magee had only 526 students. After the merger, the Magee Campus was transformed by a new building programme; the first two phases were funded by the Department of Education (Northern Ireland), and a third phase was funded by the University itself. In his 1991 article on the merger, Vice Chancellor Derek Birley writes of his satisfaction that the UU had brought revitalisation to HE provision in the North West:

A longer-term, more ambitious aim is to assist in the industrial regeneration of the north west, of which there are at last welcome signs. Magee is a campus of which the city and its environs can be, and already are, very proud. (Birley 1991)

The merger constituted a new beginning for Magee, and it is a gross distortion to judge it by the circumstances of the 1960s.

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) has provided figures on campus enrolments in Ulster University, including full-time and part-time students (see Table 1 below).

Table 1. Enrolments at Ulster University by Campus: 2006/2007 to 2018/2019.

Year	Campus
	Belfast	Coleraine	Birmingham	Jordanstown	London	Magee	Total
2006/07	1,175	5,555	0	13,200	0	3,680	23,610
2007/08	1,240	5,530	0	13,175	0	3,695	23,640
2008/09	1,405	5,270	0	13,095	0	3,390	23,160
2009/10	1,705	5,590	0	14,940	0	3,800	26,030
2010/11	1,795	5,350	0	14,370	0	4,005	25,520
2011/12	1,880	5,275	190	14,235	915	4,065	26,560
2012/13	1,755	5,195	370	13,800	1,120	4,215	26,460
2013/14	1,810	5,330	405	13,485	975	4,200	26,200
2014/15	1,885	5,205	300	13,215	1,025	4,445	26,085
2015/16	1,930	5,125	165	12,865	630	4,435	25,155
2016/17	1,910	4,725	90	12,790	625	4,500	24,640
2017/18	1,865	4,385	30	12,590	410	4,435	23,715
2018/19	1,935	4,290	0	13,255	550	4,500	24,530
	+65%	−23%		0%		+22%	4+%

Source: Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, prepared for author at her request.

These indicate that there has been steady growth of student numbers at Magee. From the low baseline of 526 when the University of Ulster was founded in 1984, they stood at 4,500 in 2018/19 and demonstrate an increase for almost every year that passes. Growth has been incremental, and it currently outstrips that of Coleraine. The figure of 3,429 given by Lord Adonis to the House of Lords in 2020 was, therefore, incorrect for Magee – it is a significant underestimation and a letter (3.8.2020) from the present author to point this out was ignored.

Excessive optimism about growth forecasts creates unrealistic expectations leading to disappointment and sanctions. At the time of the Chilver Report (1982) that led to the merger between the Ulster Polytechnic and the New University of Ulster, the staff-student ratios in NUU and in Queen’s were about the same: 8.4 in NUU and 8.5 at QUB. QUB had high unit costs per student in comparison with Great Britain: £1,940 against £1,889 for GB; in fact, these were larger than those of NUU: only £1,749 (paras 8.39 and 9.21). So, one might assume that there was no need for merger? However, the NUU’s failure to reach the forecasted numbers contributed strongly to its downfall. Sir Derek Birley in his article ‘Crossing Ulster’s Other Great Divide’ (1991, 127) remarks: ‘Lockwood’s projections of future demand were unsophisticated, even crude. Having first accepted QUB’s estimate of the extent to which they could possibly expand, 7,000, Lockwood then proposed a comfortable-looking 6,000 as the target for NUU. More objective scrutineers than the Stormont Government might have probed deeper.’ The forecasts were unrealistic, but the Lockwood Committee wanted NUU to have 6,000 students by 1980 (it had only achieved 1,836 in comparison with QUB’s 6,705 at the time). NUU’s own Academic Plan assumed that one quarter of its students would come from outside NI, but this did not happen due to the Troubles (Chilver Report 1982, para 8.43). NUU had fallen short of expectations; moreover, at Coleraine its work was not seen as a vital force in the life of its local community (para 8.40). Inflated growth forecasts, divorced from political and economic reality, helped to set the NUU up for perceived failure. The NUU did not have enough influence on educational activities outside the campus; and it had failed to build up adequate working relationships in the North West.

Ulster University, now of course post-merger, continues on occasion to tolerate or even encourage idealised expectations of high student numbers, thereby doing itself a disservice. This could be particularly dangerous for Magee. In 2006, a senior member of the UU expressed the hope of recruiting 10,000 students in Magee, but this was not based on accurate analysis or solidly costed plans. Shortly afterwards, from 2008 onwards, the Great Recession began, and an era of austerity gripped the country, making it impossible to increase recruitment, no matter how strongly the UU wished to do so. Both Queen’s and Ulster had to restrict student numbers and get rid of staff (Pritchard and Slowey 2017). Currently, there is a government-imposed cap on student recruitment in terms of Maximum Aggregate Student Numbers (MASN) which constrain growth. Both Queen’s and UU must comply with the MASN; one can expect COVID 19 to have a further depressing effect upon applications from international students. Many HEIs depend on their fees and they are important for international ranking.

The macro-indicators were overall very positive for development in Magee and the North West at the time of the Derry Now newspaper article though things are changing nationally due to COVID 19. NISRA Population Estimates for 2019 (https://www.ninis2.nisra.gov.uk/InteractiveMaps/DataVis/NI%20Population%202019.pdf) stated that the NI population had increased by 12,000 people to 1,893,700. This represented a 0.6% growth between mid-2018 and mid-2019. Derry & Strabane Local Government District (LGD) population increased by 0.4%, so the overall situation certainly did not manifest a trend of ‘mass emigration’ (pace McCloskey, op. cit.). Unemployment (as distinct from economic inactivity) was well under control. Of all places in the UK, unemployment was highest in Scotland at 4.6%. As of 16 June 2020, figures showed the rate in England to be 3.9%, in Wales 3% and in Northern Ireland 2.3% (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-53061072/).

In relation to unemployment in Derry, it was not true, as McCloskey stated above (see Preamble), that Derry had a rate that was 70% above NI average. In 2018, there were 817,000 people of working age (16–64) in employment in Northern Ireland (NI). This accounted for 70.0% of the working age population (the employment rate). Derry & Strabane LGD had an employment rate of 61.6% which was just 8.4 percentage points below the NI percentage of 16–64 year-olds in work. The employed percentage of the economically active population in 2018 was the highest annual rate on record (Labour Force Survey 2018). The Derry & Strabane Economic Forecast Study gives positive growth forecasts for the North West (NW) of the Province and demonstrates that the NW is making good progress (https://www.derrystrabane.com/Council/News/Economic-forecast-study-highlights-positive-growth/). It is clear that a university cannot function and be successful in isolation. Infrastructure is important (e.g. transport, bridges), and in the ‘City Deal’ document (of which more below) the first thing that is mentioned under investment priorities is ‘our University’ (i.e. Magee) and the ‘scaling up of research and innovation’.

To what extent has Magee served its students and local community?

Magee has a very high rating for student satisfaction. For Ulster University across all campuses, 85% of students were satisfied with the education that they had received in 2018/2019; in the case of Magee Campus, this rate rose to 90%. The third Seven-Year Review (2006) of the University of Ulster documents much progress at Magee. In 1998, the Aberfoyle property and the Foyle Arts Centre were acquired, doubling the size of the Magee Campus. New high-quality accommodation was developed (398 places). An International Business Centre was established specifically to support small business activity in the North West. The development of the Science Park saw the erection of two Research Pavilions, the Technology Software Innovation Centre, and a further building that then became occupied by Northbrook Technology. The possibility of a North/South Medical School in the North West was noted and encouraged as an issue that should be explored at the highest level. The University was commended for having provided clear evidence of its ‘capacity and determination to act as a focal point for economic regeneration in Northern Ireland’s second city and the surrounding area’ (Seven-Year Review para 6.20). The Review Committee was severely disappointed that the meeting initially organised with the Council had to be re-arranged at the Council’s request; and when it did take place, it was attended only by the Deputy Mayor (as mentioned in a personal communication to me (14.9.2021) from a member of UU who was an eyewitness to events). The Committee was deeply convinced by the evidence, both verbal and written, that the University was according priority to the further development of the Magee Campus (59).

In 2003, the library was replaced with a Learning Resources Centre. More recently it was refurbished at a cost of £1.3 m. It is a state-of-the-art facility that includes quiet study areas, a silent research lounge, group study pods, digital information hubs and new social and collaborative learning spaces. Dr (now Professor) Malachy Ó’Néill, Provost of the Magee Campus, sees it as ‘a positive development for the university and the wider North West region’ (https://www.ulster.ac.uk/news/2019/october/ulster-university-completes-1.3m-magee-library-transformation). In July 2014, planning permission was given for a new Teaching Centre costing about £11 m. It has recently been completed; it is four storeys in height, covers an area of 4,000 sq. metres, and provides three lecture theatres including one that seats over 300 people. There are also 20 teaching rooms plus student hubs and a café. It constitutes a major civic asset as well as a student amenity (https://www.ulster.ac.uk/news/2018/january/ulster-university-opens-new-11m-teaching-facility-at-magee-campus). In January 2019, the University completed the purchase of the Foyle and Londonderry College lands, marking a milestone in the development and expansion opportunities for Magee Campus (Annual Review 2018/2019).

A Strategic Growth Plan was published in November 2017 for Derry and Strabane. It sets out the ambition for a thriving and sustainable City and District with equality of opportunity for all and the capacity to catalyse growth in the entire region. Finance is partially enabled by efficiency savings generated by the new District Council; it had been formed by amalgamating previous smaller Councils in 2012. It includes digital, regional and other infrastructure projects such as a multimodal transport hub and the upgrade of the A5 road to Dublin & the A6 road to Belfast (https://growderrystrabane.com/citydeal/). The growth of the University and the expansion of research and innovation are crucial to the project. The Government funding for the Derry/Londonderry and Strabane City Deal is a £210 m investment package which includes £105 m from the UK Treasury and £105 m match-funding from the NI Executive.

Magee has long wanted a medical school; and for decades resented not having one. A Graduate Entry Medical School (GEMS) was, however, approved at the NI Assembly on 18 May 2020, and in July 2020 the Northern Ireland Executive agreed to ringfenced funding for setting up Medicine at Magee. The sum of £26 m was allocated for capital funding and £9 m per year for running costs (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-foyle-west-53347200). Professor Louise Dubras had already been in post since May 2018 as Foundation Dean of Medicine. Great hopes are being placed on GEMS as a means of regenerating Derry. Initial enrolment is 70 students which will build up over the years. Colum Eastwood (Foyle MP and leader of the Social Democratic Labour Party) welcomed the Executive’s funding commitment but complained: ‘The people of this city have been denied better university provision for far too long.’ However, evidence presented above indicates that, despite what he says, much effort and money have been invested in improving HE at Magee consistently and over a long period. The lack of a medical school has fuelled the campaign for an independent university for Derry, and it remains to be seen to what extent, if at all, GEMS will pacify those demands. A ‘victim psyche’ may lead to insatiable entitlement with the result that no successes can ever be considered adequate (Bar-Tal et al. 2009, 254; Cairns et al. 2003). The key challenge for Magee is to attract students from elsewhere. We shall turn now to developments in the Irish Republic.

The cross-border context: Letterkenny Institute of Technology

Preamble. On 19 November 2020, Colum Eastwood (MP) spoke at the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement to discuss cross-border further and higher education. He argued:

Derry and Inishowen in particular have been absolutely starved in terms of investment in Higher Education. It is an absolute scandal that we had the decision made in 1965 that we all know about [to site the second University in Coleraine] and it hasn’t been really rectified yet. … For our young people to stay, learn and work here and to grow our economy, the North West needs a proper, cross-border, full-sized university. … I for one will not be quiet until we get a full-scale university in Derry. My preference is that [it] is done on a cross-border basis.

As we have seen above, the parameters of Magee’s development were completely reset in 1984 when the University of Ulster was founded. It was a top priority with management to make a success of Magee and remains so. It is irrelevant and unjustifiable to refer back to the situation in 1965, particularly as this brings to mind the shortcomings of Magee’s submission that made the Lockwood Committee dismiss its claim for the new university. As we have also seen, Magee has received significant and substantial investment from both Ulster University and the Government. The economic indicators for the Derry and Strabane areas are encouragingly healthy and the emigration figures are reassuringly low.

In terms of tertiary education, the nearest neighbour of Magee across the Border is Letterkenny – about 25 miles away by road. Letterkenny is a town of about 19,000 inhabitants compared with Derry’s 110,000 (2018/2019). It is home to Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT) which in 2020 had circa 4,500 students. It is working towards university-status. The Irish government has produced a Technological Universities Act (2018) which will bring together Institutes of Technology and combine them into universities. The objective of LYIT is to become a Technical University (TU) under this Act while also co-creating a cross-border cluster to develop links that will benefit the North West City Region. The Connacht-Ulster Alliance (CUA) has been formed to bring together Letterkenny Institute of Technology with Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and the Institute of Technology Sligo. Dr Seán Duffy of LYIT was appointed on 4 June 2020 as Executive Project Lead of the CUA to prepare for TU designation. The CUA will have eight campuses stretching from Letterkenny to Galway, and will become one of the largest multi-campus universities on the island of Ireland, stretching over an extensive geographical region on the periphery of Europe with a predominantly rural population (https://www.gmit.ie/news/connacht-ulster-alliance-cua-formally-apply-technological-university-tu-designation-next-year). Making a success of this project will be a significant challenge.

The Irish Government is investing large amounts of money to help the Institutes of Technology prepare for university status. The Presidents of the Connacht-Ulster Alliance Institutes have welcomed the announcement of €5.7 m under the Higher Education Authority Technological University Transformation Fund (TUTF) as the CUA works to become a TU for the West and North-West of Ireland. The CUA will collaborate on a Human Capital Initiative project to develop agile responsiveness in higher education (award of € 12,381,848 announced in October 2020). It has recently (November 2020) received the sum of almost €500,000 to develop Innovation Centres. The CUA’s policy is to deepen collaborative partnerships with Further and Higher Education Institutions/organisations in the public and private sectors and to pursue them under TU status.

LYIT course programming shows that cross-border work already exists. It used to offer a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Practice taught by UU Education staff mostly from Coleraine Campus, but instead it now offers its own successful M.A. in Learning and Teaching (MALT) to upgrade its lecturers’ pedagogical skills. LYIT currently offers, jointly with Ulster University, an MSc in Public Service Leadership and Innovation. It is working with Queen’s University which is the lead partner in the Advanced Marine and Bio-Energy Bryden Centre Research. This is a €9.7 m cross-border research centre for renewable energy that brings together a number of other Irish and British partners including the University of Highlands and Islands in Scotland, Ulster University and the Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute in Belfast. Match-funding for the Bryden Centre has been provided by the Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland and the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation in Ireland. The North West Strategic Growth Partnership is an initiative chaired by Donegal County Council and Derry & Strabane District Council with representatives from government departments on both sides of the Border. The work of this Partnership is facilitated by the International Centre for Local and Regional Development based at Maynooth University. It was set up under the Good Friday Agreement and was established through the North South Ministerial Council. It has been called ‘a unique inter-jurisdictional structure’ by Hannigan, Bonar and Hannigan of LYIT (2020). Of interest is a cross-border research unit for Personalised Medicine within the School of Biomedical Sciences. It is funded by an award of about €8.6 m from the EU’s INTERREG VA Program. It has 13 partner organisations, including Letterkenny Institute of Technology, Letterkenny Hospital and the National University of Galway (https://www.ulster.ac.uk/research/topic/biomedical-sciences/research/centre-for-personalised-medicine).

New governments have recently taken office in both North and South. In Northern Ireland, the ‘New Decade, New Approach’ document of 9 January 2020 restored the government of the Northern Ireland Executive, and full operation of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement. The Executive aspires to realise the economic potential of City Deals for Belfast and Derry, and also Growth Deals for Mid-South-West Northern Ireland and Causeway Coast and Glens. It supports the expansion of university provision at Magee, including the establishment of a Graduate Entry Medical School. The Irish Government too has produced a ‘Programme for Government – Our Shared Future’; this includes a special section for North–South relations, ‘A Shared Island’, which it hopes will build consensus round a shared future. It will invest in and develop the North West and Border communities, including third level opportunities at the University of Ulster Magee Campus for young people from across the region. The new Irish coalition is committed to the North West Strategic Growth Partnership. Through Universities Ireland, it will support a North/South programme of research and innovation, including an all-island research hub, and will work to develop third level opportunities at Magee for young people from across the regions. Coleraine is not mentioned though part of it is located in North West Local Government District. So, far from being a neglected ‘step-child’, it seems that all eyes now gaze benevolently at Magee, and the best efforts of governments, both North and South, are directed at making it a success. The issue of the Border has become less of a burning grievance than it once was. Pragmatism combined with imaginative management is being used to create a cross-border zone: an example of transnational higher education. Universities UK (2019) has now produced its third annual report on ‘Scale of UK Higher Education Transnational Education’; it indicates that transnational degrees were delivered in over 226 countries and territories in 2018–2019.

The role of the Belfast and Coleraine campuses of Ulster University

But what of Belfast and Coleraine? There has been little mention of them so far. A multi-campus university – even a unitary rather than a federal one – is often subject to campus rivalry and conflict over funding. In what follows, the focus will be on economic and building issues.

As already stated, Ulster University has four main campuses within Northern Ireland: Magee, Coleraine, Belfast and Jordanstown (see McCloy 2009). In 2018/2019 Jordanstown) (the former Polytechnic) had 13,255 students which was the largest of any component campus of UU. It also featured the Sports Institute of Northern Ireland, a state-of-the-art multi-million-pound facility. However, many of the other buildings were in need of updating; some of them had reached the end of their life span estimated at ca. 40 years and failed to meet demands for a reduced carbon footprint. Infra-red photography showed that there was a huge heat loss in winter (personal communication to author from Alistair Adair, Professor of Real Estate Economics, 4 September 2015). UU planners decided that it would be more cost-effective and ecologically sounder to construct new buildings rather than repair existing buildings. Moreover, with the ending of the Troubles, students wanted a vibrant social life and were drawn to central Belfast in which it would be socially rewarding to live and work – more so than Jordanstown, a green-field-type campus, 7 miles away from an urban setting; indeed, many students had already been living in south Belfast, close to the city centre, decades before the end of the Troubles.

So it was that the plan emerged to construct a new city-centre campus for Ulster University: the Greater Belfast Development (GBD). The architects were Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios who claimed to be delivering the largest construction project currently underway in Belfast. See https://fcbstudios.com/work/view/ulster-university/. Planning permission was granted in 2013 under Vice Chancellor Richard Barnett and politician Alex Attwood (SDLP), Department of the Environment (Planning Division); the project was approved by Belfast City Council’s Town Planning Committee. The development was to cost £254 m, £16 m of which was pledged by the Department for Employment and Learning under its Minister, Dr Stephen Farry. The rest was to be raised by the University and paid off over 25 years. Both Vice Chancellor Barnett and Dr Farry emphasised the civic aspect of the building: it was to be open and accessible to the entire community, not just to academics and students. Professor Barnett characterised the GBD as a ‘thrilling new chapter in the development of the University’. According to Ulster University’s academic plan, most people at Jordanstown Campus would relocate to the Belfast City Campus, though the £13 m Sports Centre was to be retained, together with the FireSERT Specialist engineering research facility and the Dalriada student village. The move would involve about 12,450 students and 1,300 staff, meaning that almost 14,000 people would frequent the buildings in Belfast.

The construction and relocation of Phase 1 were successfully completed in 2015. Phase 2 was a joint venture between Lagan Construction Group and Somague Engenharia, incorporated in Portugal, whose Ultimate Parent Company was Sacyr of Spain. However, serious problems arose with Phase 2, though the UU had assured the government in twice-yearly reports that the building was broadly on track in terms of cost and completion date. Defects were detected in the Basement Works which caused a delay in the completion date. The European Investment Bank withdrew its borrowing agreement of £150 m due to delays and uncertainties. The Lagan company failed and there was a four-month pause to all activity, during which the Portuguese workers went home. UU requested a loan of £126 m from the Department for the Economy (DfE) to complete its project, and this was granted though under conditions that are ‘commercially sensitive’ and currently confidential (https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2020/02/27/news/assembly-committee-meeting-on-ulster-university-belfast-campus-held-in-private-1853158/). At a meeting in Stormont (November 2020), the new Vice Chancellor, Paul Bartholomew, revealed that the total cost of the Belfast Campus is estimated to be about £370 m. This will include a car park costing £23.5 m. The UU has dipped deep into its reserves to fund the Greater Belfast Development.

Finally, we turn to Coleraine where the headquarters of Ulster University are located. It has already been pointed out that student numbers at Coleraine have decreased by almost the same percentage (−23%) as those at Magee have increased (+22%). The symmetry is striking. Certainly, the civic lobby for Magee is much more impassioned and active than any for Coleraine where civic support seems less of a tradition. The energy of the Magee lobby is fuelled not alone by a desire to make it prosper, but also to use it for political (Nationalist) purposes. Campaigners in Derry have suggested that the transfer of students and courses from Jordanstown to Belfast ought instead to be in a different direction: from Jordanstown to Derry. Lobbyists have mounted a petition with strong demands for an independent University in Magee. They want Magee to be offered to the NI Government as collateral for the GBD £126 m loan; if UU cannot expand the number of students to 10,000 by 2030, it would have to repay the loan. If UU could not pay, Magee campus would be legally transferred to the NI Government for the creation of a new independent University in Derry. In this petition, it is claimed that Greater Belfast Development in Belfast makes any major expansion of Magee unlikely for the foreseeable future (https://www.change.org/p/ni-assembly-no-126m-bailout-for-ulster-university-without-magee-expansion/). The petition has not been granted. Evidence previously presented in the present paper shows the care and commitment of UU in relation to the Magee Campus. McKenna (2010), a former UU Vice Chancellor, states that ‘Capital and other funds were allocated deliberately and disproportionately to support Magee development’.

An analysis of the Annual Reviews of Ulster University for the years from 2014 to 2018/2019 can be used to benchmark important developments for the Coleraine Campus (https://www.ulster.ac.uk/about/profile/overview). A new £5.1 m teaching block at the Coleraine campus was completed in spring 2015. A new Faculty of Arts building was also opened there in the summer of 2015 following a £6.75 m investment. The Chancellor Dr James Nesbitt opened a new £5.1 m sports complex; and the campus also saw the launch of Northern Ireland’s first Enterprise Zone to attract inward investment and champion local growth and innovation. A statue by Sara Cunningham-Bell was erected in Coleraine to commemorate the 50th anniversary of academic functioning at Coleraine Campus. Space was refurbished to create a flexible, shared learning arena, the Collab Lab. Research in the Biomedical Sciences is being supported by a £700k grant from the Department of the Economy’s Higher Education Capital Investment Fund (https://researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-universities-2021-8-ulster-university-uses-700k-to-expand-research-institute/).

Though significant, it is hard to avoid the impression that these developments are less impressive than the investment in Magee especially if one counts the £26 m to establish the Medical School. Despite these ‘upbeat’ developments, Coleraine has been diminished by course transfers, closure and demolition of buildings. It currently has fewer students than Magee. Business and Computing were taken out of Coleraine and allocated to other campuses. Modern Languages were closed. About 25 Erasmus partnerships with some 200 students were lost almost overnight. The adverse publicity that this closure created was significant. South Buildings were completely demolished. All teaching and research were re-located and consolidated in Central Buildings.

Physical contraction in Coleraine is mirrored by programme contraction which will restrict perspectives for growth, especially in view of a recent important university decision. In February 2021, the University announced its intention to re-locate undergraduate Health Science courses away from Jordanstown to Magee (postgraduate courses will go to Belfast). This will involve about 800 students so it is a major contribution to growth in Derry. In 2018, before construction of the GBD, Health Sciences had been scheduled to go to Coleraine. The revised decision therefore represented a U-turn with negative consequences for Coleraine. It would have been the cheapest decision (£7792k) to put undergraduate provision at Coleraine with postgraduate provision in Belfast. In the Appraisal Document (2020) for the relocation of Health Sciences, Coleraine or Coleraine + Belfast had come first on many criteria such as cost, optimism bias, increase in income, sensitivity analysis and, crucially, placement opportunities for students. At the end, however, on page 18 a number of vague ‘modifiers’ are applied to give the desired result: Magee. This is at variance with Staff, Student and Stakeholder Voices and many features of equality analysis. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Bartholomew, was accused of operating a ‘brain drain’ away from Coleraine, and of doing a ‘closed doors deal’ with Sinn Féin (SF) – an accusation that he strenuously denied though SF welcomed the course move to Derry (see Coleraine Chronicle, 11 February 2021, 4–5).

Competition within this multi-campus university and possible future options for its development

Goedegebuure (1992) estimates that at the macro (national) and meso (institutional) levels, it generally takes a merger about 10 years to settle down. He observes continuous pushing and pulling by organisations involved in a ‘resource dependence relationship which he defines as the manner in which organisations exert influence on their environment and vice versa’ (101–102): HEIs need and want to get hold of critical resources which are usually tied to student numbers. Goedegebuure considers mergers ‘expensive instruments to bring about changes’ and believes them prone to exacerbating the ‘ugly side of life’ (76, 82–82). He reckons that about 50% of them fail in a variety of settings and of countries; he claims that they are intimately associated with stress, problems and anxieties that have a long-lasting effect on the evolution of a new institution. Large organisations do enjoy more stable relations with their environment, and frequent structural change endangers reliability of performance and accountability. However, one cannot always predict business success, and organisational mortality or disbanding sometimes occur (92–93).

Goedegebuure (op. cit.) sees mergers as intimately connected with resource dependency and construes power mostly in relation to resource access. Resources are important and are always limited, so what one campus wins, the others lose (a zero-sum game). The expense of the Greater Belfast Development is a deep concern to staff in other locations who often feel that money is being leached away from them into Belfast Campus. It is probably the case that both Magee and Coleraine have been overshadowed by the new Belfast site. Economic impact analysis showing positivity for the GBD is small comfort to those in Derry or Coleraine. Pritchard and Williamson (2008) show that even after two decades, the University of Ulster still had not reached unity at the micro level of individual adjustment. The power issues that drive conflict within Ulster University are not exclusively those of financial resources. They are also political. A dark thread runs through the foregoing depiction of Ulster University: namely, the divided society that led to the Troubles and that has imperilled developments in Northern Ireland for many years. This multi-campus university is bedevilled by the disputed sovereignty of Northern Ireland, which causes unusually severe organisational and cultural tensions. In such a situation, it is very difficult to hold the balance between the campuses. In a bad-case scenario, competition between them resembles a zero-sum game.

Various modes of managing or mitigating inter-campus competition can be suggested. It is important to correct misinformation. Evidence has been presented above that the ‘plight’ of Derry and Magee has been exaggerated and misrepresented. This extends to the highest echelons of British and Irish government: the House of Lords and the Oireachtas. False information and fake news should be ‘called out’. Unrealistic expectations should be managed and clarified. The target figure of 10,000 students for Magee was placed in the public arena almost as a ‘people-pleaser’; it lacked an established cost basis and had no status in terms of planning. This figure has become pervasive, and is included in the New Decade, New Approach document. Growth to 10,000 students is, however, an unrealistic target to achieve when one considers that between 2006/2007 and 2018/2019, numbers at Magee increased by only 820 students (22%). Queen’s, a mature institution, and a member of the Russell Group, only increased by 8% during the same period. Unrealistic predictions of student numbers made the New University of Ulster look a ‘failure’ and brought about the Chilver Review. Now, the present Vice Chancellor of Ulster, Paul Bartholomew, has wisely admitted that 10,000 figure is untenable and has publicly revised the target downwards to 6,000 students, probably about 5,000 by 2022; he states that under the current funding model, it is impossible to achieve any more (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-foyle-west-55915792). Discussion also needs to take place about what constitutes a ‘full university’ or an ‘independent university’. For example, the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, had 1,320 students in 2018–2019. Yet it is never chided for being a ‘partial’ university; in fact, it was ranked as the best HEI in Hungary before it was chased away to Austria for political reasons (see Matei 2019).

Cross-border initiatives can be advantageous for all campuses. Currently, the concept of the ‘North West’ brings more benefits to Derry than to Coleraine. Yet the ‘North West’ consists of two Council areas, not just the one closest to the Border: Derry City & Strabane PLUS Causeway Coast & Glens. Cross-border initiatives are proving stimulating and enriching to Derry. The Indecon Report of 2009 put forward strong arguments for enhanced collaboration between LYIT and UU especially in STEM subjects. Examples exist of good cross-border cooperation, e.g., in Personalised Medicine, that does include Coleraine, but such programmes need to increase in number and importance and to be applied to Causeway Coast & Glens as well as to Derry City & Strabane. Plans could be included in subsequent Programmes for Government, both North and South, which would channel money towards Coleraine as well as Derry. The recent Irish Programme for Government makes no mention of Coleraine. However, Letterkenny, UU’s nearest neighbour in the South, can continue to prove a valuable working partner for UU as it builds itself into a Technological University. Fees and taxes are different on each side of the Border. Academic structures are different; so are pensions, utility bills and house prices. For these reasons, collaboration and cross-border work may be far better ways of developing cross-border higher education than attempting total union of LYIT and Magee or a University for Derry.

Cross-border higher education is transnational higher education (TNHE) by another name. This is defined by the Council of Europe (2007) as

All types of higher education study programmes, or sets of courses of study, or educational services (including those of distance education) in which the learners are located in a country different from the one where the awarding institution is based. Such programmes may belong to the education system of a State different from the State in which it operates or may operate independently of any national education system.

In the UK (2018–2019), 666,815 students were studying offshore for UK degrees; more international students are enrolled in UK-delivered TNHE programmes than are studying in the UK; and TNHE was valued at £640m per annum to the UK in 2017. TNHE is a powerful, overarching concept that can help to overcome conflict and make optimal use of scarce resources.

In Ireland, the Dublin–Belfast Economic Corridor (DBEC) links the southern and northern capitals. It involves eight Councils and with five university campuses, a technological university and an Institute of Technology. Since the 1990s it has been achieving successes, particularly in terms of employment opportunities, peace–building, the removal of barriers and the rolling out of new transport infrastructure (Neale et al. 2021). Soft power is developed by education: just over 110,000 students were enrolled in DBEC educational institutions in the 2018/2019 academic year. Research contributions from the HEIs can act as a particular asset for the Corridor because they house numerous research and incubation centres, and facilitate public and private collaborations through their Technology Transfer Offices (ibid.: para. 39). Such Corridors exist elsewhere, e.g., in Cambridge/ Milton Keynes/ Oxford, and in Öresund where the longest road and rail bridge in Europe runs for eight kilometres, linking Sweden and Denmark. Such Corridors help to promote highly skilled workforces and populations, attract regional investment and cope with regional disparities. They can act as viable ways of finessing and managing multi-campus competition to the advantage of all concerned.

Transnational Higher Education, Corridors and Cross-Border Centres all provide a potentially sustainable means of mitigating the stress of inter-campus competition or mergers and managing the tensions of disputed sovereignty. It takes a long time to develop a successful university or campus but only a short time to destroy it.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the people who helped me in relation to this article: Alistair Adair, Janet Alleyne, David Barr, Norma Birley, Eileen Byrne, Heather Cousins, Seán Duffy, Seán Farren, Alan Faulkner, Brian French, Rafaella Folli, Sarah Fyffe, Paul Hannigan, Jonathan Harvey, Jan Jedrzejewski, Ursula Kelly, Suzanne Martin, Kerry McColgan, Gerry McKenna, Helene McNulty, NISRA, Malachy Ó’Néill and Peter Roebuck. Any errors of fact or judgement are mine alone.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Notes on contributors

Rosalind M. O. Pritchard

Rosalind M. O. Pritchard is Emeritus Professor of Education at Ulster University and is a member of the Royal Irish Academy.