Magee College

Research activities include several research institutes and centres.

Derry~Londonderry Campus is home to the Arts & Humanities Research Institute (AHRI) [5] with membership drawn from former research groupings in the Humanities Research Institute, the Academy for Irish Cultural Heritages (AICH) [6] and the Institute of Ulster Scots Studies. [7] The AHRI provides an institutional focus for research activity and collaboration across four research clusters in Creative Arts and Technologies, Irish Language & Literature, English and History embracing a range of subject areas within the Faculty of Arts, including Creative Technologies, Music, Drama, Dance, Irish Language & Literature, English and History. The AHRI promotes a broad research culture and environment within which research activity in individual disciplines flourishes.

It is also the location for the Intelligent Systems Research Centre (ISRC) dedicated to the creation of intelligent computational systems through research in neural networks, fuzzy systems, artificial intelligence and cognitive robotics. Other research areas include ambient intelligence, wireless sensor networks, robot vision, brain computer interfacing and serious games. [8]

It also houses International Conflict Research (INCORE), a joint venture between the United Nations University and Ulster University. Established in 1993, it aims to address issues of the conflict in Northern Ireland and seek to promote conflict resolution internationally. [9] The Transitional Justice Institute is based at both the Magee and Belfast campuses.

The principal academic post at the campus is the provost. Professor Thomas G Fraser was provost from 2002 to 2006, succeeded by Professor Jim Allen.[10][11] In 2011, Professor Deirdre Heenan was appointed to the post in 2011, following the retirement of Professor Allen.[12] She was replaced by Dr Malachy O'Neil in 2016

During World War II, the college was taken over by The Admiralty for Royal Navy operational use, becoming with Ebrington Barracks (HMS Ferret), a major facility in the Battle of the Atlantic. A 2013 BBC report describes a secret major control bunker, later buried beneath the lawns of the college.[16] From 1941 this bunker, part of Base One Europe, together with similar bunkers in Derby House, Liverpool,[17] and Whitehall was used to control one million Allied personnel and fight the Nazi U-boat threat.

On 14 September 2013 Magee hosted the 23rd International Loebner Prize Contest in Artificial Intelligence[18] based on The Turing Test.

Julian Peck's (who resided at Prehen House in Derry) mother, Lady Winifred Peck (née Knox), was a sister of Dilly Knox who directed the code breaking at Bletchley Park. Sir Harry Hinsley OBE was Director of Studies at Cambridge University to Professor Robert Gavin, a former Provost of Magee.

Dame Alice Rosemary Murray, the first female Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, who also sat on the Lockwood Committee (1963–65) which recommended the closure of Magee as well as the location of Northern Ireland's 2nd University being Coleraine (February 1965), from which she was later awarded a Doctor of Science (DSc) Honorary Degree (1972), was stationed at Base One Europe as WRNS Chief Officer and responsible for the welfare of 5,600 Wrens stationed at Londonderry.

In 1953, Magee Theological College separated from the remainder of the college, eventually moving to Belfast in a 1978 merger that formed Union Theological College. [13] [14] [19] Also in 1953, Magee College broke its links with Dublin and became Magee University College. It was hoped by groups led by the University for Derry Committee that this university college would become Northern Ireland's second university after Queen's University of Belfast. However, in the 1960s, following the recommendations in the Lockwood Report by Sir John Lockwood, Master of Birkbeck College, London and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, the Stormont Parliament made a controversial decision to pass it over in favour of a new university in Coleraine. Instead it was incorporated into the two-campus New University of Ulster in 1969.[13] The next fourteen years saw the college halve in size, while development focused on the main Coleraine campus.[13]

In 1984, the New University merged with the Ulster Polytechnic, and Magee became the early focus of development of a new four-campus university, the University of Ulster.[13] Student and faculty numbers recovered and grew rapidly over the next ten to fifteen years, accompanied by numerous construction projects.[13] Magee grew from just 273 students in 1984 to over 4000 undergraduates in 2012. In 2012, the University continued to lobby the Northern Ireland Executive for an additional 1000 full-time undergraduate places, leading to 6000 students at Magee in 2017.[notes 1] In October 2014 the University of Ulster was rebranded as Ulster University.

The main building was built with Scottish freestone, and opened in 1865.

• 1845 – Foundation endowment from Martha Magee.[13]
• 1865 – Magee College opened.[13]
• 1880 – Magee College joined the new Royal University of Ireland.[13]
• 1909 – Royal University dissolved.[20] Government funding greatly reduced.[13] Magee College became an autonomous university college, with students completing their degrees at Trinity College, Dublin.[13]
• 1953 – Magee University College received major government grant funding for the first time.[13]
• 1969 – Magee University College merged with the New University of Ulster.[13]
• 1978 – Magee Theological College closed, merging with Assembly's College to form Union Theological College in Belfast.[19]
• 1984 – New University merged with the Ulster Polytechnic, Jordanstown, to form the University of Ulster.
• 2014 – Rebranded name to Ulster University.
• 2023 - Rebranded to Ulster University Derry~Londonderry Campus

• Florence Nightingale visited Magee College on 31 May 1867.[21]
• The Magee College bequest is mentioned on the founder's graveyard memorial in Lurgan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, where her husband was a minister.[15]

Notable figures have received honorary degrees in graduations hosted by Magee.

• Rt Hon Lord Ashdown (Paddy Ashdown), former Liberal Democrat Leader and former UN High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2006[28]
• Amanda Burton, actor, 2002[29]
• Bill Clinton, then President of the United States, 1995[13]
• Hillary Clinton, United States Senator, 2004[30]
• Enya, Irish singer, instrumentalist, and songwriter, 2007[31]
• Gary Lightbody, Musician, 2012[32]
• Stephen Rea, actor, 2004[33]
• Fiona Shaw, actor, 2004[34]
• Sir Ian McKellen, actor, 2013[35]