I have never been much of a fan of holy relics, and the mumbo-jumbo end of Catholicism didn’t much appeal to the Victorian convert John Henry Newman either.
The Anglican who became a cardinal, and was made a saint by Pope Francis in 2019, is an enigma.
When they opened his grave looking for relics, his body had completely decomposed. But his spirit thrives in secular institutions we all take for granted: universities.
His essay The Idea of a University established the principles underpinning higher education in these islands since the mid-1800s. As first rector of the Catholic University in Dublin, he set University College Dublin on its path.
Surprisingly perhaps, Newman did not see universities as a tool for proselytising, but he believed in the intrinsic value of education for the benefit of individuals and society. No subject should be out of bounds.
Newman believed everything came from God, and he welcomed every branch of learning – even those the religious of his time viewed with suspicion.
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He said education teaches us “to see things as they are, to go right to the point… and to discard what is irrelevant”.
Clear and critical thinking is what we need today. And nowhere is that more necessary than for a cause which would be close to Newman’s heart – third-level education in Derry and the north west of Ireland.
The history lesson does not need to be rehearsed again here. Readers will know how Derry was let down in the 1960s when the New University of Ulster was established in Coleraine. Adding insult to injury, the deliberate consolidation of higher education in Belfast has further undermined the north west.
There is a direct link between universities and economic, social and cultural growth within their regions. Put bluntly, the people of Derry and the wider region have been sold short by successive Stormont administrations – and by ministers from unionist and nationalist backgrounds.
It is a scandal. There is no other way of putting it.
A parallel scandal is the sloth with which the Republic’s government has approached third-level education in Donegal, now being remedied, but with much more to do – not least in partnership with Stormont.
Last week’s independent report on higher education in the north west underscores the points made repeatedly since the cross-community campaign for a Derry university in the sixties.
At the outset of its report, Finding Common Ground, the Royal Irish Academy nails the lie that investing in Belfast benefits the whole region, and it criticises ‘piecemeal’ initiatives in the north west.
Citing academic research on regional-national economic development in the UK, the academy says: “Focusing on the most prosperous regions is not equity enhancing and may also not be efficiency enhancing.”
The report goes on to say that “institutions located in smaller urban areas and in lagging regions play much more significant economic and leadership roles in shaping their places than their higher-profile and higher-ranked counterparts in capital cities”.
In short, taxpayers would get more bang for their buck by investing in Derry and the north west. Or, to put it another way, why was the University of Ulster allowed to invest so heavily in its new Belfast campus when the greater societal rewards would have been to put that money into Magee University College?
Was the responsible ministry – the Department for the Economy – asleep on the job? If it was, as many believe, its minister Conor Murphy needs to start ringing the alarm bell pronto.
While there are dedicated bodies in England, Wales and Scotland to oversee higher education, that job here is done by civil servants working in a complex department with many competing priorities. No wonder its needs are often sidelined, and no wonder UU got away with its Belfast move. An independent oversight body is one quick fix for Murphy.
Education is basic right, it makes us who we are as individuals, and benefits society as a whole. It’s time the north west had more of it
For the second fix, he needs to respond quickly to the report’s call for more research on the optimal structure, scale, funding and governance of third-level education in the north west.
Action is not a luxury but a necessity. As Newman said, a university education is “the great ordinary means to a great but ordinary end”.
Education is basic right, it makes us who we are as individuals, and benefits society as a whole. It’s time the north west had more of it.