The Magee campus of the University of Ulster in Derry city is the fastest-growing in the whole university and plans are afoot for further programmes of expansion. Anne Byrne reports

In 1984, 526 students enrolled at the Magee campus of the newly created University of Ulster. Today, there are more than 3,000 students. By 2010, the college anticipates catering for 5,500 students.

The fastest-growing campus of UU is situated outside the walls of Derry city, where there is a major physical development programme under way, with plans to acquire further land by the waterfront. On the day EL visits, purple and white crocuses are pushing up on the last pieces of lawn left on the campus. The carpark is full, the new learning and resource centre is under construction and there is no space left to build.

The original Victorian gothic building was a training college for Presbyterian ministers. The red-brick Presbyterian church across the road has been converted by UU into an international business centre. Stained-glass windows filter the sun on to the open plan computer desks.

Professor Dolores O'Reilly says the centre provides desk space for Irish entrepreneurs starting out in the international business arena as well as hotdesking facilities for people who want to investigate the possibility of doing business in Ireland or Europe. She says she is looking forward to the time when Derry is no longer listed in textbooks as a "conflict zone".

In addition to acting as director of the international business centre, O'Reilly is head of Magee's school of international business studies, with its 850 students. The school is piloting a "new innovative modular structure" for undergraduate students from 2003, she says. This will considerably broaden the range of options available to students and, if successful, may be extended to all faculties.

UU's faculties are spread across its various campuses (rather than concentrating one faculty in one campus), so while international business is at Magee, other business options are offered in Jordanstown and Coleraine.

Under the informatics umbrella, Magee offers courses in electronics and computing. The professor of intelligent engineering systems, Martin McGinnity, describes some imaginative research projects under way or about to commence (some in collaboration with other colleges in Ireland and abroad). Success could culminate in a robot, with the "senses" of a mammal, that could "smell" or "see" in a hazardous environment. Then, there's the self-repairing electronic systems, useful in the average home where embedded computers lurk in devices such as dishwashers and washing machines.

Students may be more excited by the prospect of doing experiments remotely. These are real rather than simulated experiments with robotic devices, controlled remotely by students doing the work.

While the current experiments focus on electronic circuits, McGinnity doesn't rule out extending the technology to the physical sciences (with built-in safeguards for the robots and the lab, of course).

And with all this talk of remote technology, aptly enough it's time to commune with Professor Jim Allen, provost of Magee campus. We head to the video-

conferencing room, where two large screens provide a murky vision of the provost, who is in Coleraine, and ourselves, in Magee.

With typical timing, the technology goes on the blink and Magee remains invisible to Coleraine. Undeterred, Allen explains (to a large blue screen) that the Magee campus has focused its strategic development on informatics, software engineering, intelligent systems, and international business.

"Last summer, we gained the contract for pre-registration nurse education and training for students west of the Bann. Over the next few years, about 600 new nursing students will come on campus," says Allen.

Accommodation on campus is growing with the new learning and resource centre - which is under construction - and the decanting of the current library into it will provide space for the nursing students, he adds.

"There is significant physical development happening at Magee. We are currently negotiating the purchase of the Foyle Arts Centre from Derry City Council and there are plans to establish undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in drama, theatre, dance, music and multimedia. Theatre studies will transfer from Coleraine and music will transfer from Magee. Derry is a city of culture and is the perfect place to develop the arts." The college is also hoping to purchase land in the area, including 15 acres at Fort George, a 15-minute walk away.

Professor Bob Welch, dean of the faculty of arts, notes that new developments include the interdisciplinary Academy of Irish Cultural Heritages. This is "a new kind of academy looking at heritage in a new way, investigating the formation of our identity. Headquartered in Magee, there will also be activity at Coleraine. The link is quite important, with the Derry construct of Gaelic nationalism and the Coleraine construct of unionist Ulster Scots - the Coleraine-Derry line is like an axis along which identities migrate back and forth," says Welch.

Another new institute for Ulster Scots Studies has been established to promote the understanding of Ulster Scots history, culture and heritage within Ulster and beyond. Meanwhile, the forthcoming dance and theatre programmes will provide an opportunity for integrating high-tech with dance. Welch anticipates introducing a new programme that will "figure digitally the grammar of performance and gesture". A number of science parks have been established on all of UU's campuses, in a bid to commercialise new technologies and knowledge.

Professor Chris Barrett says: "The university has, over a number of years, taken a strategic approach to developing research strengths." The parks act as incubation centres for entrepreneurs. To locate there, businesses must be "high-growth, technology-based, predominantly R and D oriented, seeking a close and specific interaction with the university," says Barrett.

As to the future at Magee, there are some who wish it were an independent university, and others who would like to see it aligned with Letterkenny IT in a "Northwestern University". At present, it seems firmly embedded in UU, with many activities linked to other campuses.