Recommendation 9

The university cap leads many Northern Ireland students to leave to obtain high- level qualifications, which they then take into employment elsewhere in the UK or overseas. This places a handbrake on the Northern Ireland economy, with international and other firms either less willing to invest in the first place or unable to fill job vacancies and increase their existing investments. We recognise that the cap is an Executive responsibility. However, we urge the Government to explore with the Executive, including through the NI Department for Economy’s review of higher education funding, how the cap on university numbers might be raised to enable the retention of home-grown talent in Northern Ireland and an expansion of the high- skilled sectors of its economy.