University for Derry Committee

The University for Derry Committee or University for Derry Action Committee was a group campaigning for the New University of Ulster to be located in the city of Derry.

In 1963, John Lockwood was commissioned by the Government of Northern Ireland to produce a report into university education in the province. It was widely believed that he would recommend that the single existing institution, Queen's University Belfast, did not provide sufficient capacity, and would recommend the creation of a new university in Northern Ireland. A large number of groups put forward the case for siting the new campus in their own town or city, and gradually three frontrunners emerged: Craigavon, a new town under development near Belfast; Armagh, a small city regarded as Ireland's religious capital; and Derry, the second largest city in Northern Ireland.

Lockwood was due to report early in 1965, and by the end of December 1964, its proposed recommendations had begun to leak. Basil McFarland, former UUP Mayor of Derry, stated publicly that he did not believe that the report would "do Derry much good". In response, the Derry-based leaders of the Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican and Methodist churches published a joint statement in support of a university for the city. This, together with the conviction that a university would attract new industry, inspired local teacher John Hume to create the University for Derry Committee.

Founded in late January 1965, the committee was chaired by Hume. Its other members were Desmond Sidebottom, Brian Gallagher, Michael Canavan, Arthur Jack and Gerald Black - members of both the city's Protestant and Catholic communities. Aidan Clark, Desmond McCourt and John Carmony from Magee College served in an advisory role. In the committee's founding statement, it stated that government policy appeared to be deliberately isolating the city of Derry.

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