According to the report of a QAA monitoring visit in May 2021, “the college reports that it has had no relevant staff vacancies,” yet three such vacancies were advertised shortly thereafter with just over a week’s notice of the associated application deadline. The new faculty appointments were then announced in August 2021, consisting of two men and a woman who is a member of Hill Street Presbyterian congregation in Lurgan, where the convenor of the Council for Training in Ministry also happens to be the minister. Dismissal of a professor Considerable public controversy was generated latterly when the Professor of Church History and former principal, Laurence Kirkpatrick, whose teaching demonstrably inspired previous students, was suspended following his participation in a radio interview in June 2018. Then in March 2019 a church disciplinary panel found him guilty of “gross misconduct” and he was summarily dismissed after 22 years of teaching. The panel highlighted his contribution to a Talkback radio programme on 13 June 2018 which allegedly “brought Union Theological College and by association, [his] employer, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland into disrepute” and “had a significant and material adverse impact on PCI’s relationship with Queen's University Belfast and caused hurt and damage to the faculty's relationship and cohesion.” Rev. Professor Kirkpatrick ostensibly “failed to gain the church's approval for taking part” in the interview, was described as having publicly disagreed with “the doctrinal position of [his] employer”, and purportedly made no attempt to defend the college’s reputation. Of particular contention, the erstwhile Professor of Church History responded to a hypothetical question during the Talkback interview by stating that he personally “would be horrified” if students were presented with only one view on questions of sexual ethics in an academic setting, as well as saying that he would be “heartbroken” if anyone accused him of being “bigoted against Catholic students or gay students or whatever”, arguing that “as near as possible we uphold everything that the university stands for”. The sacking of a professor on such grounds in turn prompted far more widespread media coverage and public criticism than any comments previously made during the original radio interview. In particular, this was independently interpreted at the time as “stifling public debate” and curtailing “academic freedom” by undermining academics in their “ability to express a range of opinions”, although the Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland denied that ministers were being silenced.