They outlined the spending plans on Wednesday at the Northern Ireland Assembly’s economy committee.

Prof Ian Greer, vice-chancellor of Queen’s, said the university has been “working very closely” with their students’ union and has liaised with Stormont’s Irish language and Ulster-Scots commissioners.

“What we’re trying to work out is what’s feasible,” he told the committee.

“We’ve just done a scoping exercise actually, as to how we do this for the students’ union and get the tri-lingual signage in, and the cost of that will be around £600,000 just for the students’ union.

“So it’s going to give us a significant financial ask if you will, and we need to identify what’s practical for us to do.”

Ryan Feeney from the university said the plans involved a “cost imperative” and they had written to the Department for the Economy “to ask if there’s an opportunity for support”.

“We’re very happy to do that but there is a cost implication which leads us back to the discussion we’re having today around a funding reduction,” he added.