To ask the Minister for the Economy for an update on a review of the current cap of Northern Ireland students in local universities.

Due to the significant level of public funding provided to the universities, my Department has to control spending to ensure it stays within its budget allocation. The Maximum Student Number (MaSN) is the control mechanism used to ensure this.

The local universities’ MASN has increased from 22,844 to 25,255 between 2018-19 and 2021-22.

The number of student places available locally is based on the budget allocation available to my Department. Without an increase in long-term baselined teaching grant funding, my Department is unable to increase teaching grant to universities. Given the pressures faced by my Department across the budget period, there is no funding within the draft budget for further increases in the number of student places.

I understand that there can be frustrations with the perceived restrictions of MaSN. However, the Skills Barometer is very clear that Northern Ireland’s future skills shortages lie predominantly at Levels 4 and 5, with only a marginal under-supply at Level 6. Therefore, in addition to budgetary considerations, there is currently no strategic reason to justify significant increases to the overall MaSN within which our Higher Education Institutions are required to operate.