Biden visit caps Ulster University’s post-Troubles transformation

Ulster University’s new Belfast campus was purposefully designed to be a welcoming space for everyone in Northern Ireland’s capital city, but few could have imagined one of those visitors would one day be the President of the United States.

During Joe Biden’s fleeting trip to Northern Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement this week, his sole public event took place at the university’s new building in the city centre, in front of students and staff as well as the world’s media.

Vice-chancellor Paul Bartholomew told Times Higher Education that having “that sort of prominence is absolutely fantastic” for the university, which only recently completed the final phase of its redevelopment in time for the 2022-23 academic year.

He said that the university was chosen to host Biden’s address because it is a “fundamental part of the fabric of Northern Ireland”, with campuses in both Derry and Coleraine.

“A visit to us is by proxy a visit to the region and it means that message is Northern Ireland-wide in the political space, but also internationally it does place the university well on the international stage.

“I think we had the right narrative at the right time and we’re an outstanding institution in our own right as both research-intensive and teaching-intensive.

“Universities transform lives and I think that’s what politicians would also claim to do, so there’s a very good philosophical alignment between the work of politicians, and in this case an arch politician in the President of the United States, and what we as universities do.”

The £358 million project involved gradually transferring 16,500 students and staff from the Jordanstown campus seven miles outside Belfast – “the equivalent of moving the whole of Armagh into this campus”, according to Professor Bartholomew.

He said that their new York Street site, located in the popular nightlife neighbourhood of the Cathedral Quarter, has “undoubtedly” helped boost local businesses that have struggled in a post-Covid landscape, with an estimated investment regeneration impact of £1.4 billion.

It has also opened up new market opportunities and allows the university to attract students to its evening postgraduate taught courses, he added.

President Biden used his address to praise the “beautiful” glass-fronted campus, and how much the area surrounding it has changed in recent decades.

“I came here in ’91 and you couldn’t have a glass building like this in the neighbourhood, I don’t think it would have stood up very well. But things are changing,” the President said.

“This very campus is situated in an intersection where conflict and bloodshed once held a terrible sway.

“Where barbed wire once sliced up the city, today we find a cathedral of learning.”

He said the building, which contains more than 300 learning spaces, is an “an incredible testament to the power and the possibilities of peace” and means young people are less likely to feel the need to move elsewhere for their education.

“During The Troubles we were out at Jordanstown on a greenfield site for a reason – it was away from The Troubles,” said Professor Bartholomew.

The new site is an “investment in the future” and a physical manifestation of optimism, in a place where that was not always so, he continued.

Professor Bartholomew said President Biden has been “very generous” with his time with staff and students during his visit. One of those people was Gabrielle Feenan, a recent graduate of Ulster University, who introduced him on stage.

“The state-of-the-art campus that we are gathered in today is a reflection of the confidence placed in our youth, not to mention the organisations that are the foundations upon which this new generation can realise their full potential,” she said.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com