{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Holywell Trust Conversations","title":"Derry's University Grievance","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2551,"description":"Derry has been campaigning for a full sized university campus for the last 60 years. The city still holds a grievance over the Lockwood report from 1965, which chose Coleraine for the location of the new university, rather than Derry’s existing Magee College, then a Presbyterian theological college.\nI once interviewed Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, the former head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, who told me that some of the unionist politicians of the time wanted to close Magee completely, but he persuaded them not to.\nThat context continues to influence how the university debate is seen in Derry, where student numbers today are around 5,500, rising in the near term to 6,500. While this is progress, it is still a long way short of the 10,000 aspiration specified in Derry’s regeneration plan, and which the former University for Derry group (which I co-ordinated) aspired to. \nIt is even further behind the 20,000 student number that John Daly – economist for Ireland’s Northern and Western Regional Assembly – reports would be consistent with those of other Irish cities of similar size. John is one of the interviewees in the latest Holywell Conversations podcast, where he discusses how a larger university campus would benefit Derry and the wider North West region.\nBut the problem is not only that Derry has too few university students, it is that Northern Ireland also has too few. There are slightly under 70,000 higher education students, spread across Ulster, Queen’s, the further education colleges and the two teacher training university colleges of Stranmillis and St Mary’s. Of these 70, 000 students, 71% are from NI, 4% from GB, 3% from RoI, and 21% are non-EU international students, paying higher fees.\nWales has more than twice the number of students; Scotland has more than four times; while England has over 2.3 million HE students. England’s population is 30 times the size of Northern Ireland’s, so our student population should be about 7,000 greater if it was...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/PR1KfubV5mQbNCBb39558iwYKVHxNVNcf804_FJPYuQ/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzE3NTgvMTY4MDk4/NTg2MC1hcnR3b3Jr/LmpwZw.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}