UU Magee Taskforce - meeting minutes - 6 August 2024

Apologies

Welcome

SK welcomed attendees to the meeting. Stephen advised that Rebecca Allen has finished her position as President of Ulster University Students Union. SK confirmed that he has invited new President, Ethan Davies, to join the Taskforce and that Ethan has accepted the role and will attend future meetings.

Presentation: Western Health & Social Care Trust

SK welcomed Neil Guckian (Chief Executive), Karen Hargan (Director of HR & Organisation Development) and Dr Brendan Lavery (Medical Director) from Western Health & Social Care Trust (WHSCT) to the meeting.

Neil opened by stating he was supportive of the campus expansion, and the two senior teams within Ulster University (UU) and WHSCT have a strong relationship and are already working together regarding workforce needs. Neil then provided the Taskforce with an overview of the Western Trust’s profile, highlighting its dominance in the labour market, cross-border and regional services but also its geographical challenges.

Neil explained how the expansion of the Derry-Londonderry campus could have a positive impact on the long-term health of the local population. Neil stated that by expanding the university, it affords more local students the opportunity of a higher education and higher paid employment which will help to address local health inequalities and outcomes.

Neil presented on workforce to the Taskforce. He noted some of the issues surrounding the medical workforce are, in his view, a lack of coherent workforce strategy, attraction and retention difficulties and a high vacancy rate. He noted that there are particular requirements for more midwives, primary care multidisciplinary team members such as social workers, allied health professionals (AHP) and pharmacists as well as non-frontline posts.

Karen further advised that competition from Republic of Ireland is growing as the city is so close to Donegal where wages are often higher. Neil stated that the nursing workforce has stabilised largely due to the Ulster University Derry-Londonderry graduates and acknowledged the success of the programme. He reiterated that the University is critical to the long-term stability of the Western Trust

Neil noted that placement experience is a top priority for the Western Trust and is the key to the attraction and retention of staff. Neil also advised that gaining ‘university- status’ for the hospital would be beneficial in attracting talent.

Neil also made a series of recommendations to the Taskforce for their future consideration.

SK thanked the representatives from WHSCT for attending and noted their impactful presentation. He acknowledged that UU is critical to the long-term stability of the Western Trust and conveyed the Taskforce’s commitment to supporting the Trust.

IK noted that the Taoiseach celebrated an All-Island approach to healthcare on his last visit to the Western Trust and so the education of health professionals should be viewed in the broader North West context.

SL acknowledged the Trust’s quality submission and stated that the impact of the expansion of the university on the health outcomes of the region should be recorded in the interim report. He noted that this matter is an obvious cross departmental project.

AW recognised the major role that UU has to play in addressing the economic and health inequalities in the city, and that the Taskforce accordingly need to consider how to help those from lower socio-economic backgrounds access the healthcare courses offered at Derry-Londonderry campus. LM agreed that there is a clear need to connect those that are economically inactive into the skills ecosystem and onward into UU to help address the needs of the WHSCT, suggesting that this could be a future workstream potentially.

PS acknowledged the resource allocation within Department for the Economy’s draft budget for 2024/25 ring-fenced for expansion at Magee. This will contribute to an additional 26 radiography and four podiatry places in 2024/25.

Conflict of Interest

No further Conflict of Interests.

Minutes from last meeting/update on action points

All Taskforce members confirmed they were content, and no amendments were required to the minutes of the previous meeting. The secretariat provided updates on the DfE owned Action Points.

Summary of previous meeting

SK provided a recap of the previous meeting. He acknowledged the urgent need for more purpose-built student accommodation in the city to support the expansion of the university campus. SK advised there is already interest from private developers, and it is critical to define the opportunity to quickly unlock private investment.

Future work plan and engagement

SK updated members on engagement with other stakeholders and the areas that still need further discussion.

He advised that he is hosting ‘Féile 2024: The Future of a University in Derry – A Community Conversation’ on 12 August. He also confirmed he will appear as a witness at the Committee for the Economy on 18 September when committee members visit Magee.

SK noted that the student experience survey results have been circulated. He acknowledged that while the response rate was low it reflected many of the same themes that have been discussed during Taskforce meetings.

Correspondence

The Taskforce agreed to respond to acknowledge the Motion passed at a meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council on 26 June 2024, regarding Joe Kennedy III’s potential meeting with the Taskforce to discuss how he could assist in their work.

Presentation: Academic Planning

Dr Shane Crothers, Director of Business Intelligence & Planning at UU, presented to the Taskforce on academic planning using UU’s ‘Aspire’ system. Shane firstly acknowledged the university’s achievement of >30% growth in student numbers since 21/22, mainly through the relocation of the Allied Health Professional courses. He then presented growth figures for the next few years up to 2027. He noted that beyond this figure further growth is more difficult to predict, would require additional funding and would be dependent on several critical interdependencies. PS noted that at present there is not adequate bedspace to support the projected growth figures.

The Taskforce discussed the New Decade, New Approach’ (NDNA) target of 10,000 students at UU Derry-Londonderry campus, noting that the commitment did not specify the composition of that target. It was agreed that, for inclusion in the interim report, more work is required to formally agree the composition of the 10,000 students.

Discussion: Draft Interim Report

The Taskforce discussed the draft interim report. SK summarised some of the additional themes that need to be added or expanded in the current version of the draft. The group agreed that the report needs to be ambitious and visionary but also have realistic recommendations.

SK asked that further comments on the draft report be returned to him ASAP, with a view to collating these for onward transmission to the report writer for consideration and inclusion as appropriate, with the expectation that the next draft would issue by COB Friday 16 August.