Queen's University Belfast

Teaching quality

Described as ‘Ireland’s Oxbridge’ by The Sunday Times, Queen’s is recognised regularly for its high standards of teaching. It’s membership of the Russell Group, an independent body of 24 top-ranking, research-led UK universities, adds to its prestige as one of the most reputed universities in the UK.

Queen’s also operates a number of schemes to reward and recognise teaching excellence, including the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS), Higher Education Academy (HEA) professional recognition scheme.

• NTFS: Recognises individuals making an outstanding impact on student learning experience and helping develop a proactive teaching community.
• HEA professional recognition scheme: Works with higher education providers to help improve professional experience of teachers through fellowships, accreditation, awards and professional development.

Some of Queen’s teachers who are major contributors to their fields include the following:

Professor Joanne Hughes

World-leading educationalist who has developed a shared education model in Northern Ireland also adopted in Israel and Macedonia. Appointed the first ‘UNESCO Chair on Globalising a Shared Education Model for Improving Relations in Divided Societies.’

Dr Julie M Norman

Research Fellow at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security, and Justice, focusing research on unarmed resistance in protracted conflict, particularly in Israel-Palestine.

Professor John McCanny CBE

An international authority in the design of silicon integrated circuits for Digital Signal Processing, John has offered pioneering contributions to this field and co-founded two successful hi-tech companies.

Department structure

Queen’s has various departments spread over three main faculties, namely Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; Engineering and Physical Sciences and Medicine; Health and Life Sciences.

• Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences: Vast range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and well known for postgraduate research culture.
• Engineering and Physical Sciences: Made up of academic disciplines focusing on leading advances in science and technology.
• Medicine, Health and Life Sciences: World-leading provider of postgraduate programmes with excellent partnerships with government and industry. 

Queen’s provides international students with various study options, including undergraduate programmes covering a range of subjects such as Accounting, Aerospace Engineering, Biological Sciences, Business Management, Civil Engineering and Drama to Finance, French and Spanish, Mathematics, Software Engineering and Zoology.

Students have access to many postgraduate taught programmes in subjects including Advanced Food Safety, Applied Psychology, Business Communication, Education and Environmental Engineering to Global Health, International Business, Law, Public Health and Youth Justice.

It also offers a number of postgraduate research programmes including Accounting, Clinical Psychology, Ecosystem Biology and Sustainability, Ethnomusicology, Interpreting, Management, Planning and Theology.

International students can consider taking up pre-sessional English to help prepare for their academic study by improving English skills with a focus on subject-specific written work. Preparation courses are also available in partnership with INTO, offering a student experience with quality teaching and modern facilities. There is also an International Ambassador option giving special opportunities for international students to attend exclusive events as representatives of the Queen’s international student body and accessing free professional development courses.