Tri-lingual signage at QUB will cost £600k

Queen's University Belfast has said proposals to introduce "tri-lingual" signage at its students' union building will cost £600,000.

The plans will see Irish and Ulster-Scots included alongside English on signage at its Student Centre in the south of the city.

It follows a campus-wide referendum in March when most students expressed support for adding Irish to English-language displays.

Senior university officials described the plans as a "significant financial ask" and said they had approached Stormont to request additional funding.

They outlined the spending plans on Wednesday at the Northern Ireland Assembly's economy committee.

Prof Ian Greer, vice-chancellor of Queen's, said the university has been "working very closely" with their students' union and has liaised with Stormont's Irish language and Ulster-Scots commissioners.

"What we're trying to work out is what's feasible," he told the committee.

"We've just done a scoping exercise actually, as to how we do this for the students' union and get the tri-lingual signage in, and the cost of that will be around £600,000 just for the students' union.

"So it's going to give us a significant financial ask if you will, and we need to identify what's practical for us to do."

Ryan Feeney from the university said the plans involved a "cost imperative" and they had written to the Department for the Economy "to ask if there's an opportunity for support".

"We're very happy to do that but there is a cost implication which leads us back to the discussion we're having today around a funding reduction," he added.

Meanwhile, the university warned of the "detrimental impact" resulting from violent disorder that erupted last month on the streets of Belfast and other parts of Northern Ireland.

Migrant families were forced to flee their homes and police were targeted during the serious disturbances.

It came in the wake of footage of a violent knife attack being widely shared online.

Greer said the public disorder had "impacted on our ability to attract international staff and students".

The committee was told some international students in private rented accommodation had to be temporarily rehoused as a result of the disorder.

Professor Margaret Topping from the university added: "We've had to do quite a lot of work internationally to reassure people that this is not what Northern Ireland is about."

But she said they were "seeing a detrimental impact" on international students "coming this year because they do have a concern about what they have seen".