Debate contribution: Retaining and Inspiring Young Talent

Debate contribution by Mr Conor Murphy on 24 June 2024.

MLA

Mr Conor Murphy

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

24 June 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Retaining and Inspiring Young Talent

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4498062

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion and thank the Members who tabled it. It is important to be clear that, although many students from the North study elsewhere, the data shows that we perform better than many comparator regions at retaining our talent. For instance, around 75% of local students stay here to study at our universities, which is a higher proportion than for Wales or any English region. Additionally, about half our students who study in Britain return home to work within 15 months of graduating, which, again, is a higher proportion than for Wales, Scotland and most English regions. Only London and the north-west of England perform better in that regard. Nevertheless, we must do more to retain our talent here. That will help us to achieve the New Decade, New Approach (NDNA) commitment of 10,000 student places at Ulster University's Magee campus in Derry. Reaching 10,000 students will require an increase of at least 4,500 students at Magee over the coming years. It will mean delivering new undergraduate and postgraduate places. It will require work to promote Magee as a destination campus, enabling an increase in the number of students retained in the area while attracting more people from elsewhere in these islands and further afield to live, study and work in the Derry area. The expansion of the Magee campus is key to promoting regional balance in line with my economic plans, and it will assist in efforts towards increasing productivity and creating good jobs. A larger pool of talented and skilled graduates emerging from Magee will attract firms to the north-west and fuel innovative start-ups in the area, contributing to increased business success and prosperity and improving the prospects for economic development in Derry and the surrounding region. To help deliver the commitment, I established an independent task force under the leadership of Stephen Kelly and Nicola Skelly. The task force will publish its agreed action plan before the end of this year and will remain in place for the remainder of the mandate to monitor implementation. The funding required to implement the recommendations will be prioritised as part of future-year budgets. While there is a particular focus on the expansion at Magee, I will work with all our higher education institutions to ensure that we provide as many opportunities as possible for people to study here. There are several hundred reluctant leavers annually who do not stay in the North even though they have applied to an institution here as a first preference. We need to make sure that those individuals can stay here, not only by making sure that there are sufficient places but by ensuring that the right opportunities are available. We also know that there are and always will be determined leavers who simply do not apply for a university place here and actively choose to leave the region for a variety of reasons. That might be from a desire for new experiences in a new environment, for the opportunity to pursue a particular course offering or to attend a particular institution. There is third group of students who leave but whose motivations are harder to capture and who may be persuadable. In respect of that group, we have much more work to do to address perceptions about a lack of good job opportunities or future quality of life here. We need to take action to change that mindset and show the value of staying here for a third-level education and a future career. As Members will be aware, I want to increase the proportion of working-age people in good jobs, promote regional balance, raise productivity and reduce carbon emissions. Delivering on those objectives will help to create a thriving economy that works for everyone, which will make the North a more attractive place in which to live and work, thereby helping to retain our best and brightest. Creating opportunities for graduates will help not only to retain more of our local students but to attract students from elsewhere, including the South. As Members will be aware, it is a priority for me to improve student mobility across Ireland. Prior to his becoming Taoiseach, I had a positive discussion with Simon Harris TD in his then capacity as the responsible Minister on the steps that we can take together to reduce barriers across the island. I have recently reached out to my counterpart, Minister Patrick O'Donovan TD, with a view to continuing that dialogue. I intend to explore, as part of that engagement, ways in which we can remove barriers to cross-border study. Progress to reduce barriers to North/South student mobility and enhanced cooperation on higher and further education across Ireland is being made through initiatives in both jurisdictions. For example, from next year, postgraduates from the North who are studying in the South will be able to access tuition fee loans. The Irish Government have been proactive in providing funding for the expansion of Magee and have improved cross-border mobility by reviewing A-level grade equivalences. There is much more to be done, but I am encouraged by the engagement to date, and I intend to build on that going forward. We should also recognise that there are pathways alternative to university that will be the best route for many of our young people to follow. Tom Elliott and a number of other Members mentioned that in the debate. There is a gap in the motion where it is does not focus on this. In that regard, my Department is working with the Department of Education to ensure that, in careers advice, we ensure that not only children but parents are aware of the variety of pathways that are available to people to move into higher-level apprenticeships (HLAs) as well as higher and further education. Clearly, awareness is required there, and perhaps the wording of the motion reinforces that. We could start a pilot scheme in the Chamber to make sure that people are aware of the full gamut of pathways available to people. If we are going to look at that issue strategically, the conversation needs to be broader than simply increasing university places. We need to make it clearer to young people that their skills can be developed both through our local universities and through alternative pathways. I encourage anyone who is considering undertaking a higher education course either at home or in any other jurisdiction to explore the opportunity to study here at any of our further education colleges. The colleges, in addition to further education courses, offer a wide range of high-quality higher education courses. As well as that, my Department's higher-level apprenticeship programme offers an alternative route to the kinds of qualifications at levels 4 to 7 that traditionally have been available only through study at a higher education institution. Higher-level apprentices are employed and attend college or university, usually on a day-release basis. More than 70 separate qualifications are now offered as HLAs by the six regional further education colleges, the College of Agriculture and the local universities in a wide range of sectors, including engineering and manufacturing technologies, computing, finance, hospitality and health and social care. I turn to some of the other points that were mentioned aside from apprenticeships and the higher-level apprenticeships options. The Chair of the Committee raised the issue of the maximum student number (MaSN), and he is aware, as he has received information from me and my officials in Committee, that we are committed to working with the higher and further education sector to grow student numbers sustainably. As the 'New Decade, New Approach' (NDNA) document that committed to expanding Magee campus recognised, significant expansion of higher education here is likely to require changes to the MaSN, but, of course, those are all budget-related, as he is also aware. While we want to work with the universities and will do so and will have a dialogue with them and with the colleges to try to grow student numbers, that has to be done in a way that we can sustain ourselves from the finances that are available to us. I assure the House that we will continue to work with those education institutions in the time ahead to ensure that that is the case. I assure Members that we will work with, as I said, the HE and FE sectors, colleagues in the South and others to ensure that everyone who wants to can stay here to study and to build a prosperous and a fulfilling future, making a valued contribution to a healthy and thriving economy that benefits everyone in our society. I concur with the desire expressed in the motion to see that people who want to stay here and whose first option is to stay here to study are able to do so. That, of course, presents challenges, not least financially, but we will continue to work with the institutions to develop the best possible options for all of our young people and those returning to studies in the future.

1,514 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:49 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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