Belfast call to go alone

NORTHERN Ireland needs its own strategic development plan for higher education backed up by separate funding, Sir Ron Dearing was told this week.

Sir Ron was chairing a one-day conference in Belfast, where it was announced that the Ulster section of his committee's report will be written by Sir George Quigley, chairman of the province's Economic Research Council.

A broad cross-section of senior university and further education figures complained to Sir Ron that too many students are forced to leave Ulster because undergraduate places in the province have been capped by the Government.

They also mooted the possibility of greater links between the University of Ulster and its 17 further education colleges, some of which deliver degree-level teaching.