QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, BELFAST

Queen's University, Belfast - or officially The Queen's University of Belfast is a university in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The university was originally part of Queen's University of Ireland created to encourage higher education for Catholics and Presbyterians as a counterpart to the Anglican Trinity College, Dublin.

The university offers academic degrees at various levels and across several faculties including those in dentistry, engineering, humanities, law and medicine.


HISTORY OF QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, BELFAST

Queen's is the second oldest university in Ireland and the ninth oldest university in the United Kingdom. The university has its roots in the Belfast Academical Institution, founded in 1810, whilst the university was established as a college in 1845 as Queen's College, Belfast when it was associated with what was then Queen's College, Cork and Queen's College, Galway as part of the Queen's University of Ireland (1850) and later the Royal University of Ireland (1880).

The Irish Universities Act, 1908 dissolved the Royal University of Ireland and created two separate universities - the current National University of Ireland and Queen's University of Belfast.

On opening in 1849 as a Queen's College it had 23 professors and 343 students.

The university was one of only eight UK universities to hold a parliamentary seat in the Westminster Parliament until such representation was abolished in 1950. The university was also represented in the now defunct Northern Irish Parliament from 1920-1968 where it held four seats. The last Member of Parliament for the university's Wesminster seat was Professor D.L. Savory and the last Member of Parliament for the university's Northern Irish parliamentary seat was Dr. H.I. McClure. Both representatives belonged to the Ulster Unionist Party .


ACADEMICS OF QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, BELFAST

In addition to the main campus in the centre of Belfast, the university has two associated university colleges, these being St Mary's and Stranmillis both also located in Belfast. Although offering a range of degree courses, these colleges primarily provide training for those wishing to enter the teaching profession.

The university has formal agreements with other colleges in Northern Ireland and operates several outreach schemes to rural areas, the most successful of which is at Armagh, the Armagh Campus.


INSTITUTES OF QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, BELFAST

Several institutes are also associated with Queen's. Located close to the main campus is the Institute of Professional Legal Studies at Queen's which offers training to law graduates to enable them to practice as solicitors or barristers in Northern Ireland, England & Wales and the Republic of Ireland. Admission to the Institute is highly competitive and depends on the graduate's overall academic standing and their performance in an unseen written exam. The Institute of Theology consists of several colleges with a Christian emphasis, including St Mary's (Catholic), Union Theological College (Presbyterian) as well as Baptist and Methodist colleges in Belfast - in all five colleges teach any programmes with a religious emphasis on behalf of the university.


REPUTATION OF QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, BELFAST

Independent league tables published by The Guardian newspaper in 2005 placed the university at number 33 out of 132 institutes of higher education within the United Kingdom, commenting "Queen's has a well-deserved reputation for the quality of its teaching and research, particularly in medicine and engineering."

The university also hosts the annual Belfast Festival at Queens.


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