THE myth of the Northern Ireland brain drain has been debunked by a report for the Department for the Economy, which regulates our universities.

The proportion of students who leave to study elsewhere is just 22%, lower than Wales and every English region.

Our problem is a reverse drain brain – a uniquely low number of students move here from the rest of the UK and Ireland.

It seems we have never left our Troubles reputation behind.

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Stormont caps the number of places for local students to keep the cost of their subsidised fees under control.

Students from the Republic are counted as local, but students from Britain pay full fees so there is no limit on their number.

Attracting more of them is the only way to grow our universities now the international student market has peaked – unless Stormont feels like raising fees.

Sinn Féin economy minister Caoimhe Archibald has ruled out raising fees. She is calling on the Irish government to help fund students from the Republic and has promised her own focus will be on promoting Northern Ireland to students from Britain.

Ms Archibald may be the first nationalist minister to try luring people over the water, although she can be assured most will leave again, as the report also found we do not have enough graduate jobs.

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The first report from the new Troubles investigation body, the ICRIR, has been welcomed by the family of the victim, SDLP founder member Rory O’Kelly, murdered by the IRA in 1977.

The report was requested by his son, who died last year.

The murder was also investigated by the PSNI’s Historical Enquiries Team (HET) in 2011 as it worked through all Troubles deaths in chronological........

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