Derry: a real university challenge

They're calling it a haemorrhage of brain power - and with some justification. Because of a lack of third-level places in the Derry region, thousands of students are forced to emigrate to advance their studies.

Almost 8,000 students from the Derry area are currently engaged in third-level education, according to Western Education and Library Board figures. Due to a shortage of places, the vast majority have to travel outside Northern Ireland to complete their education.

This pattern is repeated throughout the North. A staggering 18,000 students leave the North every year to take college places in Britain and the Republic. Meanwhile, only 6,000 students come into Northern Ireland each year.

It's a brain drain that Northern Ireland, and Derry in particular, can't afford. The Dearing Report on Higher Education highlights an annual loss of some £45 million to the local economy.

However, the forced export of its best and its brightest young people has even greater ramifications for a society. "If a community continues to lose its best people at that rate, it can't thrive either economically or culturally," observes Paul Herron, who is John Hume's Westminster parliamentary researcher. Hume's office is spearheading the campaign for the expansion of Magee College.

"It's very healthy for students to go away to college, but there should be some quid pro quo," he says. "Students from other areas should be able to come here." The need for students to remain in Derry for their third-level education is likely to become acute in the future. "The imposition of fees and the abolition of student grants in favour of loans next year will mean that more students will want to stay in their own city," he argues. Already students from Derry, who are studying in Britain, are dropping out for financial reasons, reports Theresa Murphy, who is spearheading a separate campaign to establish an independent university in Derry.

"The cost issue is huge," she says, "especially when you have two or three children being educated at the same time." Youngsters, who leave Northern Ireland to study, tend not to return. In Derry, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that there are few employment opportunities for graduates. Even those who remain in Derry for third level tend to move on once they graduate. "I graduated from Magee two and a half years ago," Herron says. "There were seventy in my class but only five of us are still in Derry." The fact that role models leave the city means that it is a much poorer place. Youngsters from poor backgrounds have fewer opportunities to witness the economic rewards which follow educational success.

The Dearing Report on Higher Education notes that if Northern Ireland were to have a third-level provision similar to that of Scotland, an extra 12,000 places would be required. John Hume, meanwhile, is calling on Dr Mo Molam, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, to increase the number of places at Magee College from the current 3,000 to 10,000.

There is widespread support for this in Derry, where people look with considerable envy at the economic successes of Galway, Cork, and Limerick and the Irish Government's efforts to increase third-level participation. People are acutely aware of the relationship between investment in third-level education and a booming economy. The British government's cap on third level places in Britain, meanwhile, is viewed with dismay, since it is seen as having limited Derry's economic expansion.

"We want to see more job creation in Derry," stresses Mary Casey, who is a community development officer. "The region needs an extra 8,000 university places to bring it out of its social and economic decline. Such an expansion, she argues, would improve the knowledge and R&D base of the city and attract more industry into the area. Casey is calling for an impact study on an expanded university in Derry to be carried out. "Throughout the world, you find that areas of high industrial growth - particularly high tech - are close to universities," comments Dr Bernard Toal who is the Derry Investment Initiative's director of operations. Seagate, which is about to expand its Derry plant and increase employment to 3,000, was attracted to Derry partly as a result of "the flexibility of the local training establishments - the university (Magee) and the North West Institute of Further and Higher Education and semi-private training organisations", he notes.

Derry boasts the highest number (six) of US inward investors in Northern Ireland. Yet despite this and the fact that the city's unemployment rate has dropped from just under 20 per cent in 1992 to 12 per cent, unemployment remains twice the Northern Irish average. Furthermore, this latter figure (12 per cent) "masks the fact that in some areas unemployment is as high as 60 per cent," Toal says. Derry City Council, in its Economic Development Strategy, is committed to reducing unemployment in the area "to a rate no greater that the NI average". To do this, 9,000 jobs need to be created. The council recognises the role that higher education plays in economic development. Noting the fact that there are just under 2,000 higher education places in the city, the council highlights the need to review the current provision.

"We are the largest, most westerly city in Europe," says Bernard Toal. "We look with envy at the growth of IT in the Republic, which has shown us that peripherality doesn't matter. UU has the largest IT faculty in Britain with over 3,000 students and Magee campus is a major part of that faculty. But most of the graduates we produce have to leave. We are trying create an environment in which we can retain people in good jobs here." An expanded university is an essential element in this, he argues.