Professor Malachy Ó Néill:

The medical school is the most obvious example. The statistic that we often use is that one needs 20-20 when we worked on the case for the medical school, that is that 80% of medical school graduates reside in a 20-mile radius of where they study for a period of 20 years after they graduate.

In some cases, that may be taken with a pinch of salt but, in reality, particularly given the graduate-entry model of medical school, these are people at a particular time in their lives with regard to settling down and making long-term commitments and long-term arrangements and so on. It goes back to Ms Gildernew's point about how areas such as Fermanagh, south Tyrone and the general north west can benefit from that talent development enhancement. Retention is absolutely game changing for the wider community, not just for the academic community, in quality of life and general healthcare. The ability, for example, of small rural GP practices to stay open simply because the talent exists in the local population is transformational for urban and especially for rural communities in this part of the world. That significance is worth identifying.

The same can be said for computing and engineering graduates, other life and health science graduates, social scientists, and graduates from arts and humanities who will make such a huge difference for quality of life going forward. Retaining all of that talent, along with our business graduates, in the north west would be absolutely transformational. Having that network of pathway opportunities from one institution to another, and the ability to go from level 2 onwards, from apprenticeships right through to PhD, within one's own region is exceptional. We as a collective are absolutely committed to delivering on that.

Dr. Farry asked about the conflict archive on the Internet, CAIN, general peace studies and research, and Ulster University's undertaking on that. He is absolutely correct that there has been significant progress on the case for CAIN in recent terms. The general development of peace studies, the continued delivery of research and education in that space, and the Magee campus, is something we are absolutely committed to. A permanent home for the CAIN archive is now confirmed in collaboration with our Ulster University library, which has been transformed and enhanced through a €1.5 million investment in the past year. It has been transformational and we will continue to develop that, we will continue to develop the international networks around the Hume-O'Neill chair, as well as the CAIN archive. We are also working on the development of a graduate academy model that will take in those cognitive areas such as law, social science etc. that will further enhance the offering in peace and conflict studies.