Competition within a multi-campus, merged university - a zero-sum game?

Many reasons exist for mergers in higher education. One of the most pervasive is the pursuit of resources, often expressed in terms of student numbers which give increased power within an education ecology. However, resource dependency is not the only rationale for merger; and history demonstrates that a multi-campus institution may disband as well as amalgamate. The present study is based on Ulster University, a multi-campus institution in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. It is itself the product of merger and embodies the political tensions of Unionism and Nationalism that are endemic in the province. There are indeed struggles over resources which make campus competition look like a zero-sum game in which a gain for one side entails a corresponding loss for the other side. The political dimension is based upon historical narratives that are powerful even when they are not always fact-based; it has potential to destabilise the institution. Yet methods exist of managing inter-campus competition in order to create positive transactions capable of satisfying the needs of all concerned even across different jurisdictions within the island of Ireland. Well-implemented, such structures could help to defuse aggression between interest groups, facilitating optimal use of resources and increasing educational opportunity.