The future of higher education appears to be at a tipping point in Northern Ireland, with budgetary issues threatening places for local students and progress on a review of structural funding issues seemingly stalled.
In the absence of a national budget, Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) has warned that the contingency budget proposed by the Department for the Economy (DfE) amounts to a £13.5 million reduction in funding.
Reductions to the teaching grant specifically equate to approximately 720 fewer undergraduate places at QUB, the university said.
Northern Ireland’s universities are already struggling financially, with both QUB and Ulster University reporting respective deficits of £22.8 million and £20.2 million in 2024-25.
“The higher education and further education sectors have been operating in financially constrained circumstances for a significant period of time and the contingency budget brings the sustainability of teaching, learning, research and innovation into sharp contrast with other jurisdictions,” said John D’Arcy, former principal of The Open University in Ireland.
