Assembly’s Economy Committee holds meeting in the Magee campus of Ulster University

The Northern Ireland Assembly’s Committee for the Economy held its weekly meeting in the Magee campus of Ulster University today (11 March 2026) and visited Seagate Technology in the city. 

At the meeting, Committee members received an update on the third report of the Taskforce for the expansion of the Magee campus of the Ulster University from Stephen Kelly, Chair of the Magee Expansion Taskforce.

His update included details of the progress made to date, such as securing land to deliver a campus for at least 10,000 students and developing new capital build facilities.

Following the meeting, Committee members visited Seagate Technology.
The facility opened in 1993 and currently employs approximately1,500 people, developing new technologies and manufacture of hard drive components for the data storage industry. 

Economy Committee Chairperson Phillip Brett, MLA, said:

 “We were pleased to accept the invitation to hold our meeting in the Magee campus of Ulster University today. As the Department for Economy is a key partner is the campus expansion project, we were interested to hear the latest update from the Magee Taskforce. Their briefing gave us an insight into the progress which has already been made in delivering this Programme for Government (PfG) commitment. Our afternoon visit to Seagate Technology gave us a sense of some of the innovative products being delivered by the company, which is one of the biggest employers in the north west.”

An audio recording of the Committee meeting will be available here.

ENDS

For any media enquiries, please contact: Maureen Heaney, Communications Office, Northern Ireland Assembly.

Email: maureen.heaney@niassembly.gov.uk  

Phone: 028 9052 5938/074 8349 0870.

Notes to editors

• The Ulster University Magee Taskforce was launched by then Economy Minister, Conor Murphy on 22 March 2024, to develop and oversee an action plan to expand Ulster University’s Magee campus to 10,000 students.
• The Taskforce published its update report on 14 January 2026. Read it here: Magee Taskforce Update - One Year On
• Find out more about Seagate Technology: https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/

Find out more about the Committee for the Economy here: Committee for the Economy