Ex-Civil Service chief hits out at university numbers cap

A former head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service has hit out at the Government-imposed cap on the number of university students in the province.

Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, who was also first Chairman of the NI Higher Education Council, said the equivalent of “a whole university of students” are being denied the chance of higher education within Northern Ireland.

“I do not want to see Queen’s University or the University of Ulster reserved for Ulster students, but I do not want to find that those who would prefer to study at home and, indeed, find it expensive and difficult to travel, cannot be accommodated," he said.

Sir Kenneth was addressing hundreds of young people from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland at a conference being held in Belfast to celebrate 10 years of the Washington-Ireland Program, a cross-border, cross-community initiative which provides leadership development training and professional internships in Washington for university students from both sides of the border. The conference is supported by the University of Ulster.

Sir Kenneth said demand for university places in Northern Ireland far outstrips the ability of the two universities to meet. “We have a cap on student numbers in a community short of the equivalent of a whole university," he said.

He added that growth of the knowledge economy and the development of the information revolution has transformed the economic prospects of Northern Ireland. But the province must follow the example of the Republic of Ireland with its continuing emphasis on education.

(MB/GB)