TUV leader Jim Allister met the Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s Professor Ian Greer yesterday to discuss the perception of the University within the Unionist community and how this can be addressed.
Commenting Mr Allister said:
“For quite some time it has been clear to me that there is a perception within the Unionist community that Queen’s is a “cold house” for them. I was pleased that the Vice-Chancellor was able to meet with me to yesterday discuss some of these concerns
“I made it clear to Professor Greer that while I respect academic freedom I believed it was unwise to not have stricter guidelines around the use of the Queen’s logo. This was a particular issue raised with me by a number of members of the public following the publication of a report on Irish unity which prominently carried the logo of QUB. While I accept that the work was carried out as consultancy the use of the logo prominently on the cover led people to draw the reasonable conclusion that it carried the imprimatur of the university.
“While the University is rightly keen to promote academic freedom I did highlight the fact that academics were silent when there was an attempt, through an online petition, to silence the voice of the pro-life society at Queen’s and that some academics had actually signed the petition. I also conveyed to the Vice-Chancellor a number of concerns which have been raised with me about the feeling of alienation some students feel within a union which they see an increasingly hostile to their beliefs and culture.
“I was pleased that the University was able to provide me with examples of what it is doing which should go some way to allaying Unionist concerns such as the relationship which Queen’s is building with schools in the loyalist community of South Belfast as well as engagement which the University has had directly with Unionist students studying at Queen’s.
“A regular complaint from the Unionist community is about the brain drain from the Province – young people leaving Northern Ireland to study in Great Britain never to return. In this respect the cap on the number of students both our universities can take is a major issue. While Queen’s has only 60 places for every 100 applications due to the cap introduced by Stormont Scotland has 90 while in England there are 120. The cap exists to keep fees in Northern Ireland down but if we want to see more of our young people educated to degree level and above at home we face a difficult debate about raising fees or finding additional resources for our universities from within the block grant.
“As a graduate of Queen’s I would urge students from a Unionist background to apply to the University. It is important that as many people as possible are educated here at home and that our brightest and best stay in Northern Ireland.”