Diane Dodds ‘shocked’ by Westminster proposal to cap numbers of English students at NI universities

Stormont Economy Minister Diane Dodds has joined in Welsh and Scottish outrage over a move by the UK government to limit student numbers.
Diane Dodds said the proposal runs contrary to an earlier agreementDiane Dodds said the proposal runs contrary to an earlier agreement
Diane Dodds said the proposal runs contrary to an earlier agreement

The UK government is moving to limit the number of students from England who can go to university in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland next year.

Mrs Dodds said she is “wholly opposed” to and “shocked” by the move.

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The DUP minister said: “I am shocked and concerned that another jurisdiction is seeking to control student numbers here in Northern Ireland and the impact that this may have on our local sector.”

There has been strong opposition to the move in the UK’s other devolved administrations.

Welsh Education Minister Kirsty Williams wrote a letter to the UK’s universities minister, Michelle Donelan, outlining “deep concern” over the student places cap.

Scottish minister for higher education and science, Richard Lochead, said the proposed cap had caused “considerable anger”.

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Mrs Dodds, in a statement issued through her department, said: “I am wholly opposed to Department forEducation England’s intention to impose a student number control on full-time undergraduate English domiciles at Northern Ireland’s higher education providers this coming academic year 2020/21.

“I am shocked and concerned that another jurisdiction is seeking to control student numbers here in Northern Ireland and the impact that this may have on our local sector.

“This intention runs contrary to what had been agreed amongst the four UK administrations at the beginning of May in regards to a number of measures relating to admissions for 2020/21 under the UK Admissions Package.

“I believe that this proposal has the potential to break up the unified higher education market within the United Kingdom in terms of access to study based on student choice and academic achievement – it is a dangerous precedent to set and one I am wholly opposed to.”

She has also written to Ms Donelan to convey her views.

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“I know that my counterparts in the other devolved administrations have expressed similar concerns and we await a response from minister Donelan,” she said.

Mrs Dodds added: “Local institutions will have already started to determine their recruitment of English-domiciled students without any indication that the new DfE England restrictions would be imposed on them.”

She described the proposed cap as “not only unfair but unprecedented”.