Queen's University Belfast Information

Queens University Belfast (informally Queens or QUB) is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland.[note 1] The university was chartered in 1845, and opened in 1849 as ’Queens College, Belfast’.

Queens offers academic degrees at various levels and across a broad subject range, with over 300 degree programmes available. The current president and vice-chancellor is Ian Greer. The annual income of the institution for 2017–18 was £369.2 million of which £91.7 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £338.4 million.

Queens is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the European University Association, Universities Ireland and Universities UK. The university is associated with two Nobel laureates and one Turing Award laureate.

Queens University Belfast has its roots in the Belfast Academical Institution, which was founded in 1810 and which remains as the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. The present university was first chartered as "Queens College, Belfast" in 1845, when it was associated with the simultaneously founded Queens College, Cork, and Queens College, Galway, as part of the Queens University of Ireland – founded to encourage higher education for Catholics and Presbyterians, as a counterpart to Trinity College, Dublin, then an Anglican institution. Queens College, Belfast, opened in 1849. Its main building, the Lanyon Building, was designed by the English architect, Sir Charles Lanyon.At its opening, it had 23 professors and 195 students. Some early students at Queens University Belfast took University of London examinations.

The Irish Universities Act, 1908 dissolved the Royal University of Ireland, which had replaced the Queens University of Ireland in 1879, and created two separate universities: the current National University of Ireland and Queens University of Belfast.

The university was one of only eight United Kingdom universities to hold a parliamentary seat in the House of Commons at Westminster until such representation was abolished in 1950. The university was also represented in the Parliament of Northern Ireland from 1920 to 1968, when graduates elected four members.

On 20 June 2006, the university announced a £259 million investment programme focusing on facilities, recruitment and research. One of the outcomes of this investment has been a new university library; the McClay library was designed by Boston-based architects Sheply, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott, working in association with Belfast architects, Robinson Patterson Partnership, and opened in July 2009. The building has been named in honour of Sir Allen McClay, a major benefactor of Queens University and of the Library.

In June 2010, the university announced the launch of a £7.5m Ansin international research hub with Seagate Technologies.

Queens is one of the largest employers in Northern Ireland, with a total workforce of 3,903, of whom 2,414 were members of academic, academic-related and research staff and 1,489 were administrative employees.

In addition to the main campus on the southern fringes of Belfast city centre, the university has two associated university colleges, St Marys and Stranmillis located in the west and south-west of the city respectively. These colleges offer teacher training for those who wish to pursue teaching careers and a range of degree courses, all of which are centred around a liberal arts core.

While the university refers to its main site as a campus, the universitys buildings are in fact spread over a number of public streets in South Belfast, primarily, University Road, University Square, University Street, Malone Road and Stranmillis Road, with other departments located further afield such as in Titanic Quarter and Portaferry.

Academic life at Queens is organised into fifteen schools across three faculties. The three faculties are the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS), the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS) and the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences (MHLS). Each of the faculties operate as a primary management unit of the university and the schools are the focus for education and research for their respective subject areas.

Queens has been led by a distinguished line of vice-chancellors, including Sir David Keir, Lord Ashby of Brandon, Michael Grant, Sir Arthur Vick, Sir Peter Froggatt, Sir Gordon Beveridge, Sir George Bain and Sir Peter Gregson. The current vice chancellor, Ian Greer, was appointed in January 2018, following the sudden death of the previous vice chancellor, Patrick Johnston.

The universitys chancellors have included Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 9th Earl of Shaftesbury, Field Marshal Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Eric Ashby, Baron Ashby, and George J. Mitchell. The last chancellor was the businessman Thomas Moran who died in August 2018. The search for his successor is currently underway.

Queens University Belfast was admitted as a member of the self-appointed Russell Group of UK research-intensive universities in November 2006. It was ranked joint 42nd in the UK for the quality (GPA) of its research and 19th for its Research Power in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework.

The Times Higher Education rankings 2018 placed Queens 32nd out of 93 in the UK. In the 2018 QS World University Rankings, Queens was ranked 202. In 2019, it ranked 258th among the universities around the world by SCImago Institutions Rankings.

In the National Student Survey 2013, Queens was ranked 12th in the UK for student satisfaction.

Queens is ranked 202 in the world according to the 2018 QS World University Rankings. Research at the university includes investigations of cancer, sustainability, wireless technology, creative writing, pharmaceuticals, and sonic arts. In 2016, the university ranked 36th in the UK according to the Complete University Guide.

The university has been awarded the Queens Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education on several occasions, including for work in comprehensive cancer services and improving survival rates for patients in Northern Ireland. In 2015, Queens was awarded the Queens Anniversary Prize for work in the field of engineering and technology

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