UUP's Carmichael calls for more higher education places

Mr Robert Carmichael, the East Londonderry Ulster Unionist Party Association Chairman, has called on the Stormont Minister responsible for higher education to immediately implement a university fees freeze by as well as creating more HE places in the Province’s universities and regional colleges. 

   The UUP man said in a statement to coincide with the start of the new academic year the association would “warmly welcome any announcement that tuition fees for Northern Ireland students attending universities and regional colleges in the Province were to be frozen, and especially in the East Londonderry constituency which boasts the Ulster University and Northern Regional College”. 

     Mr Carmichael added: “Any decision to freeze - even reduce fees - will hopefully be an encouragement for many Ulster students to remain in the Province to continue with their higher education studies.

   “This would be a major step forward in combating the so-called ‘brain drain’ in Northern Ireland in which many of our students leave the Province to study in other areas of the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland.

   “However, any fees financial incentive to remain in Northern Ireland, and especially given the excellent higher education provision in East Londonderry, must also be matched with a corresponding rise in the number of higher education places on courses at our universities and regional colleges,” said Mr Carmichael.