Ulster University

Pushing Boundaries: A century of change in the politics of Belfast

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 23, 2024, 10:46 pm

| Readers 3787

Nicholas Whyte delivering lecture on Belfast constituency boundaries in his role as a Visiting Professor at Ulster University.

Nicholas Whyte is no stranger to this parish. Among his interests are international diplomacy, election data, and science fiction awards … at times all three of those even manage to combine. This evening he was lecturing at Ulster University as a Visiting Professor of Politics on the topic of “Pushing Boundaries: A century of change in the politics of Belfast”. He also touched on the thorny issue of “Where is the Devenish?” You can watch back the lecture and the …

Derry’s university grievance

Paul Gosling on February 5, 2024, 9:03 am

| Readers 1812

Derry has been campaigning for a full sized university campus for the last 60 years. The city still holds a grievance over the Lockwood report from 1965, which chose Coleraine for the location of the new university, rather than Derry’s existing Magee College, then a Presbyterian theological college. I once interviewed Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, the former head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, who told me that some of the unionist politicians of the time wanted to close Magee completely, …

Tackling isolation

Paul Gosling on December 13, 2023, 10:19 am

| Readers 1748

Isolation and loneliness amongst older people are serious problems that worsened during the pandemic. While people are living longer, often this involves one partner surviving the other. Sometimes the result can be not only unhappiness, but also additional pressures on GPs and hospitals, as the person has nowhere else to turn. Loneliness has such far-reaching consequences that the health impact is comparable to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, according to one study, and is associated with an increased …

The GFA brought peace – but paramilitaries haven’t gone away

Paul Gosling on April 23, 2021, 9:05 am

| Readers 4442

The Good Friday Agreement ended the bitter conflict, but failed to eliminate the poison of paramilitarism. In the latest Forward Together podcast interview recorded before the loyalist street riots protesting against the Brexit Protocol and the latest paramilitary shootings in Derry, Duncan Morrow considers the limitations of the GFA. Northern Ireland remains overshadowed by paramilitaries that claim a political motivation, yet are engaged in criminal enterprises that include the drug trade, protection rackets and loan sharking. Can the GFA now …

Derry breathes a sigh of relief as Ulster University plan to move 800 places to Magee…

Jay Burbank on February 2, 2021, 6:46 pm

| Readers 3536

It’s been a debate rumbling on since the 1960s and has been subject to many slugger posts over the years. Including the lack of strategic thinking over the long-term viability for our health service. The post graduate entry medical school at Magee is set to take students in September this year (according to UU’s website at time of posting) but it has been blighted by delays and began as a project in the early noughties. 20 years in Derry (policy) …

#TheReset Podcast – Steve Bradley on the future of Derry…

Brian O'Neill on September 20, 2020, 9:13 am

| Readers 2621

Steve Bradley is a regeneration consultant, you can follow him on Twitter. Steve is a very popular writer on Slugger with some of his posts getting over 40k readers, you can view an archive of his posts here. In this podcast, we discuss the future of Derry and the Northwest. In particular, we discuss: The future of Ulster University in Derry or lack thereof The potential for an independent University How Covid-19 will affect Derry, in particular, fewer people having …

Hume’s origin story: fighting injustice at every corner…

Jay Burbank on August 3, 2020, 9:14 pm

| Readers 2388

It is incumbent upon us all to remember what propelled a young teacher in Derry into frontline politics and change the face of Northern Ireland forever. The young teacher was John Hume, born into a working-class catholic family he had been given opportunities not afforded to generations before and attended University. In the words of that other Derry giant (Gerry Anderson) his generation of queens’ graduates [para] “went away to university, learned about the country they lived in and came …

“Most people believe social care should be free, but there’s a lot of confusion out there”

Paul Gosling on May 25, 2020, 9:02 am

| Readers 554

Social care must be reformed. If it wasn’t clear before the Covid-19 pandemic, it has become tragically obvious over recent weeks. So this is an opportune time to hear in the latest Holywell Trust Forward Together podcast from Deirdre Heenan, professor of social policy at Ulster University and joint author nine years ago of a major study into Northern Ireland’s health and social care system. “The vast majority of people accept and want the NHS to be free at the …

SOAPBOX: Why university staff are striking…

Soapbox on February 21, 2020, 7:33 am

| Readers 1822

Dominic Bryan, is a Professor at the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queen’s University Belfast. You can follow him on Twitter. Staff in Northern Ireland at Queen’s University, the University of Ulster and the Open University, myself included, are on strike again. Staff at Universities all over the UK are on strike again. This is the second time in a year and the third time in three years. It is utterly frustrating that we are back in …

Ulster University and where to find 100 more doctors?

Jay Burbank on November 28, 2019, 7:55 pm

| Readers 3329

It has been an argument raging on for 50 years, it briefly united Unionist and Nationalist elected reps in a period of violent division but it has yet to be resolved; a University for our second city. When the Stormont government attempted to shutdown the Magee University College (as it then was) campus and divert its resources to the New Ulster University in Coleraine which was recommended by the Lockwood Report. The City rose up in unity with Brian …

Northern Ireland Social Science Festival launches programme…

Brian O'Neill on October 8, 2019, 12:43 pm

| Readers 1602

Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University are again coming together to launch a packed programme of talks, workshops, plays and interactive activities that showcase the range and quality of social science research being carried out in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland ESRC Festival of Social Science kicks off across Northern Ireland in various venues from 2 – 9 November 2019. The UK-wide Festival of Social Science is run by the Economic and Social Research Council, and aims to open up …

Brexit, Borders and Beyond: Marxism as a Guide in Turbulent Times (watch back)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on June 8, 2019, 1:55 pm

| Readers 2059

Last night, the very room in The MAC which hosted the launch of NI21 six years ago to the day, was the venue for a panel discussion on Brexit, Borders and Beyond: Marxism as a Guide in Turbulent Times. Mary Davis, John Barry and Costas Lapavitsas contributed to the well-attended event that was organised by Ulster University’s School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences in association with Reclaim the Agenda and Slugger O’Toole.

Fifth NI Peace Monitoring Report shows a Northern Ireland stuck in neutral, sometimes in reverse #NIPMR

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 10, 2019, 12:10 am

| Readers 1372

A look through the fifth NI Peace Monitoring Report, written by a team of academics at Ulster University and published today by the Community Relations Council. The answers in the 200 page report are not all positive as the team make their assessment of the state of the economy; political progress; the sense of safety; wealth, poverty and inequality; and cohesion and sharing.

Soapbox: The challenge to keep the peace process flowing forward

Soapbox on January 10, 2019, 12:05 am

| Readers 293

Peter Osborne is chair of the Community Relations Council and a member of the Peace Monitoring Report advisory group. He can be followed on Twitter at @OsborneTweets. The latest Northern Ireland Peace Monitoring Report [PDF] speaks into a space that hasn’t been as uncertain in a generation. While there were two steps forward and only one step back, a sense of confidence, hope and ambition defined the process; and confidence empowered progress no matter how slow at times. In recent …

Dealing with crisis: Ferry strike threatened to disrupt UU exams #20YearRule

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on August 29, 2017, 12:00 pm

| Readers 161

FERRY STRIKE in May 1988 – newly released files under the 30/20 Year Rule show that as well as monitoring the levels of food and milk in Northern Ireland, emergency planning officials were alerted to dwindling supplies of paper that could have affected University of Ulster’s examinations!

Ulster Uni’s new Belfast Campus Shows it isn’t Serious About Magee Expansion. So it’s time for Derry to Look Elsewhere

Steve Bradley on August 29, 2017, 10:59 am

| Readers 5017

Last week’s A’Level results not only signalled the start of the annual scramble to secure a place at University. They also pointed to a worrying development for the long-promised expansion of Magee campus in Derry. Student Numbers Falling Figures from UCAS (the University and Colleges Admissions Service) show a 4% fall this year in applications to go to University – the first such decline in five years. All parts of the UK are reflecting this drop, and the figures also …

Magee or not Magee – Time for for a graduate entry medical school in Derry / Londonderry?

Soapbox on April 1, 2017, 3:31 pm

| Readers 3498

There is definite support in Derry for Ulster University’s proposal for a graduate entry medical school at Magee campus. After 53 years of exasperation that the city does not have a full sized university, actual excitement for such ideas is always tempered by fear that it will not happen. But at least the city’s response is definitely positive – unlike the apparent reactions in Belfast and Coleraine. A medical school in Derry should be a no brainer. There are …

Discuss, Debate, Discover: NI Festival of Social Science (5-11 Nov) #ESRCFestival

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on November 2, 2016, 5:50 pm

| Readers 164

What is public art’s role in reimagining Northern Ireland’s post-conflict identity? What was the social impact of the 1941 Belfast Blitz? A look at the OU’s prisons oral history project. The role of sport in society – transformative or not? And discussing being an parent with an autistic child.

Ulster University release new report on public attitudes to Peace Walls.

David McCann on December 15, 2015, 2:07 pm

| Readers 843

PEACE WALLS: New research commissioned by the Department of Justice and carried out by Ulster University has revealed some interesting findings about how the public view peace walls. This survey follows on from similar research carried out by the Institute for Research in Social Sciences back in 2012.