The continued failure to restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland has left its higher education system “in limbo”, a vice-chancellor has warned.
Northern Ireland has effectively been without a government since February last year, when the Democratic Unionist Party, driven by its opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol, triggered the collapse of devolved government.
The Northern Irish government had pledged a “full review” of higher education, but the delay in starting the review caused by the lack of functioning executive is already damaging the sector, said Ian Greer, president and vice-chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast.
A growing funding crisis in the country has sparked fears that the Department for the Economy’s budget for further and higher education could be cut by almost 20 per cent in 2023-24.
