The threat of budget cuts comes as QUB has been stepping up its efforts to recruit disadvantaged students from the province and redoubling its research links with universities in the Republic of Ireland. Queen’s and University College Dublin have signed a memorandum of understanding to enhance co-operation in research and innovation in areas of mutual strength, and Queen’s is involved in 43 of the 62 projects to be funded by the Irish government’s €37.3 million Shared Island North-South Research Programme, announced in 2022.

Queen’s had already been increasing its recruitment of international students and plans to double their numbers. The appointment of Hillary Clinton as chancellor has raised the university’s global profile.

The university has been rising steadily up our league table in recent years, but falls in student satisfaction and research quality scores have halted its progress. QUB remains in our top 30 overall, however, despite sliding four places.

In our analysis of the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021), QUB has tumbled 21 places to 35th place, having failed to keep pace with improvements among its immediate rivals. 

The results of the latest National Student Survey show that students have somewhat lost faith in teaching quality, leading to a fall of 20 places to 94=. In terms of the wider undergraduate experience, QUB has slipped even further: 39 places, to 74=. 

Student facilities will improve dramatically with the opening of a new students’ union and guidance centre in 2022. The university expects it to transform the provision of student services and support, bringing them together for the first time. It is the latest in a string of developments over the past ten years worth £350 million, including new buildings for law, biological sciences and computer sciences.

Most undergraduates come from Northern Ireland — two thirds from grammar schools, which educate a much larger proportion of the population in the province than elsewhere in the UK. Because of that feature of the Northern Irish school system, the university does not appear in our social inclusion ranking, where it would be disadvantaged by the focus only on non-selective state school recruitment. 

QUB has stepped up its efforts to broaden its intake, and about 30 per cent of undergraduates received some financial support in 2021-22. The Pathways Opportunity Programme guarantees Northern Irish students living in disadvantaged areas a conditional offer that may be two grades lower than the norm for their chosen course.

Civic responsibility and economic prosperity are among the main pillars of the university’s strategy for the rest of the decade. Queen’s plays a leading role in the Belfast City Region Deal, a 15-year programme to boost growth. It has been awarded £170.8 million towards an Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Strand, £52.4 million towards a Global Innovation Institute and £39.7 million towards an Institute for Research Excellence in Advanced Clinical Healthcare.

A member of the Russell Group, the university won a seventh Queen’s Anniversary prize for higher education in 2020 for its pioneering work to facilitate collaboration between schools of different faiths. For more than a century the university’s own charter has guaranteed non-denominational teaching as well as student representation and equal rights for women.

The campus, on the south side of the city, has a cinema, an art gallery and theatre, all of which are open to the wider community as well as students. Belfast city centre has plenty of nightlife but the social scene is mainly concentrated on the students’ union and the surrounding area. 

Most of the 4,400 residential places are at the Elms student village, close to the university, but a recent development of 1,200 rooms with its own services, including pastoral care, security and social activities, has added the option of living in the city centre. First-years, including those taking foundation degrees, are guaranteed a place, as are those with disabilities, care leavers and students who are estranged from their family. 

The university’s sports facilities, which include a cottage for climbers in the Mourne Mountains, also boast an international-standard hockey pitch, an arena pitch that can host football, rugby or Gaelic sport, and a recreational trail. The Physical Education Centre has two swimming pools and there is a boathouse on the River Lagan.