The John and Pat Hume Foundation and the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) are hosting jointly a one-day conference in the Waterside Theatre, the Ebrington Centre, Glendermott Road, Derry~Londonderry, BT47 2GB on Tuesday 11 October 2022 on ‘The Future Development of Higher Education in the Greater North-West of the Island of Ireland’.
The North-West of the island has suffered from regional under-investment within both jurisdictions in Ireland (Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland) as a result inter alia of the inevitable disadvantages associated with being a border region, and its peripherality from the main centres of political, governmental, and financial power, namely Dublin and Belfast.
The conference is intended to enable discussion of ways of enhancing, planning and organising the contribution of tertiary education to the economic and social development of the greater North-West region without undue jurisdictional constraints. This includes examination of the historic under-investment in higher education and associated economic infrastructure in the North-West, and the need for focussed cross-border planning. It will explore a future in which higher and further education contributes strongly to economic, social and cultural development and wellbeing, that tackles historic regional imbalances in infrastructure investment, but also advances a democratic society founded on rigorous analysis, evidence, truth, fairness and tolerance.
The conference will be introduced by Dr Mary Canning MRIA, President of the Royal Irish Academy and Professor Seán Farren, Chair, The John & Pat Hume Foundation
Keynote speakers and their themes include:
- Professor John Fitzgerald MRIA, Trinity College Dublin and Economic and Social Research Institute
“The economic consequences of an underdeveloped North-West”
- Professor Gerry McKenna MRIA, Senior Vice President, Royal Irish Academy, and Chair, RIA HE Futures Taskforce
“A proposed model of HE and FE cooperation and collaboration for the North-West”
- Professor Simon Marginson, Director of Global Higher Education Centre, University of Oxford and University College London
“International examples and trends in trans-national education”
- Professor John Goddard OBE, Emeritus Professor, Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS), Newcastle University; Professor of Universities and Cities, University of Birmingham
- “Regional Strategies for Higher Education”
Overview
- Caitriona Mullan Association of European Border Regions and International Centre for Local and Regional Development.
There will also be break-out sessions on the higher education challenges, economic and business opportunities, and political issues that must be addressed in order to enable the Greater North-West to fulfil its potential both for regional benefit and the overall development of the island.
This conference is being delivered with support from the Department of Foreign Affairs Reconciliation Fund.
The conference fee is £16 includes lunch.