DUP to monitor referendum on rebranding of university

The referendum is scheduled to take place tomorrow, Thursday, and members of the DUP locally have said they will be monitoring the process and its outcomes very closely.

In a statement this week, Councillor David Ramsey said: “The DUP have learned that there will be a re-branding process taking place with regards to all universities in Northern Ireland.

“The DUP are concerned this may end up in the arena of another political football, and lead not only to the demise of Magee locally, but also have a negative impact on the PUL (Protestant, Unionist, Loyalist) community in the north west,” he said.

“We have been informed that this consultation is considering renaming the university ‘City of Derry University’. This could be seen by the PUL community as another attempt to undermine our cultural association with the city of Londonderry.

“The DUP will be keeping a very close eye on this process and will be supporting strongly that this consultation takes into consideration the voices of all concerned,” Mr Ramsey said, adding that he saw the role of the DUP now as one of monitoring the process.

“We will be in touch with the students union to check how this progress and what the outcomes are,” Mr Ramsey said.