Ulster University 'renegotiated' loan for new Belfast campus

Ulster University has "renegotiated" a loan of almost £160m from Stormont for its new Belfast campus.

That is according to the university's just-published financial statements for 2020/21.

In January 2020, the Department for the Economy said the university had sought a loan of £126m to complete the campus.

The university's financial statements reveal "a new loan agreement of £158.75m" is in place for the development.

"The university has entered into a long-term loan agreement with the Strategic Investment Board to assist the funding of the Greater Belfast Development," Ulster University's financial statements said.

"The loan agreement was renegotiated during the year and a new loan agreement of £158.75m was approved, with a term of 30 years."

"The university has drawn down £137.75m of this loan as at 31 July 2021."

Equality screening of the £126m loan amount carried out by the Department for the Economy (DfE) in February 2020 said financial assistance to Ulster University (UU) had "become necessary as contractual project issues have caused project costs to increase from £254m to £370.9m".

But in a statement to BBC News NI, the university said the adjustments in the 2020/21 financial statements "reflect changes only to the reporting of how the loans are presented in the financial statements, with the consolidation of existing facilities alongside new facilities for the Greater Belfast Development (GBD)".

"There is no change to the amount of the financial transactions capital loan and the 30-year repayment term remains unchanged," the statement said.

"The project is expected to be delivered within budget."

About 15,000 students and staff are eventually expected to be based in UU's Belfast campus.

However, there have been a number of delays to its completion, which was originally due to open in 2018.

Ulster University had received previous loans from the executive towards the building as well as committing about £150m of its own money, according to a previous report from the Northern Ireland Audit Office.

BBC News NI has also contacted the Department for the Economy - which is responsible for higher education - to ask them for clarification on the loan amount specified by Ulster University and whether that meant the overall cost of building the campus had risen.

Meanwhile, Ulster University's 2020/21 financial statements also show it made a surplus of £22m over the year, excluding pension scheme adjustments.

The university's total income for the year was £239m, a rise of 11% from £214m in 2019/20.

Ulster University said the rise was due to an increase in tuition fees and the receipt of Covid-19 support funds.

"Funding body grants increased 12% due to the receipt of DfE funding to support Covid-19 recovery for teaching and research activities," the financial statement said.

"Growth of 15.7% in tuition fees is due to an increase in student numbers and an increase in the Department of Health contract."

University income from tuition fees and education contracts rose to £98m in 2020/21 from £85m in 2019/20.

Funding body grants rose to £92m from £82m over the same period.

But the 2020/21 statements said the university was still "operating in an environment where we receive considerably less funding per student per year than comparable institutions in England".