Northern Ireland

Executive 'must better fund' higher education

Sinead McLaughlin, SDLP universities spokeswoman
Sinead McLaughlin, SDLP universities spokeswoman Sinead McLaughlin, SDLP universities spokeswoman

THE executive must invest more in university and college education after years of cuts, it has been urged.

Annual spending on higher education reduced by £24 million in a decade, figures included in response to an assembly question show.

A report from the think-tank Pivotal found that Northern Ireland was the only UK region to reduce funding in recent years.

SDLP universities spokeswoman Sinead McLaughlin asked Economy Minister Diane Dodds for her assessment.

Mrs Dodds' reply revealed a cut from £216.5m in 2009/10 to £192.5m in 2019/20.

Ms McLaughlin, an assembly member for Foyle, said the north already lost too many students to other places.

"Most of those students never return, creating a serious brain drain that benefits Britain but harms Northern Ireland," she said.

"The recent report from the Pivotal think-tank pointed out that investment in university education has actually fallen in recent years. The answer from Economy Minister Diane Dodds confirms this. Just when we needed to increase our investment in skills, her department cut its support for university education by 11 per cent.

"Northern Ireland needs to create more jobs by expanding its economy. To do that, we must improve our skills base. That in turn requires increasing the number of undergraduate places at our universities, while also strengthening vocational training at the further education colleges. Scotland is able to both hold down tuition fees while not losing its students to other places - so we should be able to do the same."

Mrs Dodds said while significant cuts had been made in 2015/16 as result of the NI budget allocation, "since that time there has been continued (re)investment in higher education".