Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council will invite Ulster University’s (UU) Vice-Chancellor to council chambers to discuss potential redundancies.

In April Vice-Chancellor, Paul Bartholomew, revealed that 450 of the university’s 3,100 staff could potentially be cut.

During May’s council meeting, DUP councillor Philip Anderson put forward a successful motion, which read: “That this council requests the urgent attendance of the Vice Chancellor of Ulster University to discuss the announcement that up to 450 staff could lose their jobs.

“Assurances must be given that Coleraine Campus will not suffer disproportionately, should these job cuts go ahead.”

Councillor Anderson says UU’s Vice-Chancellor must give assurances that Coleraine is not disproportionately affected by potential redundancies (pic: CC&GBC

placeholder image — Councillor Anderson says UU’s Vice-Chancellor must give assurances that Coleraine is not disproportionately affected by potential redundancies (pic: CC&GBC

DUP councillor Tanya Elder seconded councillor Anderson’s motion and said the potential job losses were “deeply concerning for the staff and the wider community”.

“It is only right that this council seeks clarity and accountability from the Vice-Chancellor,” she argued. “We must also ensure that the Coleraine campus is not being disproportionately affected, given the importance to the local area, and I would urge members to support this motion in the interests of fairness and protecting livelihoods.”

UUP councillor Richard Holmes said the Coleraine campus had “suffered quite a bit over the last number of years”, as UU has “tried to restructure itself and move courses away”.

“We’ve been left with a bloody nose in terms of jobs moving away,” he said. “I don’t know how much impact it has, but the work going on in Belfast has put huge strains on the university and I don’t think it’s fair that we should ever have to pay the price for it.”

He argued that UU and the Assembly may have to consider increasing student fees in order to stay economically viable.

“Nobody wants student fees to go up, [but] whenever your costs are going up, if you’re not increasing your income you’re always going to finish up in this situation,” he said.

“It’s something that the university and the Stormont Executive is going to have to look at. Unless politicians are prepared to actually start using calculators and try to work some of this stuff out, we’re going to see massive failures and more unemployment.

“It’s great keeping costs down for students, but at the expense of being able to employ lecturers to lecture them it seems pretty foolish economics.”