To ask the Minister for Employment and Learning for his assessment of the impact of closing the Modern Languages School at Ulster University Coleraine on (i) the local student economy, (ii) drawing and retaining students to study in Northern Ireland, and (iii) the future of subjects studied with a modern language as a joint degree.

(i) Ulster University has announced that it is making a number of changes to course provision in order to manage the budget cuts imposed as a result of the decisions taken by the Northern Ireland Executive. This includes the closure of some courses and the consolidation of others. The University has advised that although the School of Modern Languages is closing at Coleraine, the BSc Hons Psychology and all combinations with Psychology will be moving from the Magee campus and the teaching of these courses will be consolidated at Coleraine. It is too early to comment on how this will affect overall student numbers on the Coleraine campus and, therefore, too early to tell what the impact the changes will have on the local student economy.

(ii) At this stage I have no reason to expect there to be a negative impact on the number of students coming to Northern Ireland to study. The University has an internationalisation strategy and actively recruits students from international markets as well as Europe and Great Britain. I expect the number of students from outside Northern Ireland enrolling at our institutions to continue to increase.

(iii) Ulster University has confirmed that it will no longer be offering modern languages as a component of joint degrees.