Queen's University Belfast
Queen's University Belfast (Irish: Ollscoil na Banríona, Béal Feirste) is a university in Belfast, Northern Ireland and a member of the Russell Group (a lobby group of major research universities in the United Kingdom). The university's official title, per its charter, is Queen's University of Belfast. The university offers academic degrees at various levels and across a broad subject range. It is particularly strong in the professions: pharmacy, medicine, dentistry, law, accountancy, architecture, engineering as well as pure and applied sciences, the arts and humanities and social sciences. The university's current President and Vice-Chancellor is Professor Peter Gregson, and its Chancellor is the former United States Senator, George Mitchell.

Parliamentary representation
In addition to the main campus not far from 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.
While the university refers to its main site as a campus, the university's buildings are in fact spread over a number of public streets in South Belfast, centring around University Road, University Square and Stranmillis Road, with other departments located further afield.

Academic
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 practise as solicitors or barristers in Northern Ireland, England & Wales and the Republic of Ireland.
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 theological emphasis on behalf of the university; the university may confer theology degrees but cannot teach the subject itself.

Institutes
Queen's University Belfast was admitted to the prestigious Russell Group of UK research-intensive universities in November 2006 [1],[2]. Independent league tables published by The Guardian newspaper in 2007 placed the university at number 28 out of 123 institutes of higher education within the United Kingdom, commenting "Queen's is one of the UK's top universities, with a good academic reputation, especially in medicine and engineering".

Reputation
Entrants to Queen's have, on average, 359 A/AS-level points and there are currently 5.3 applications per place.

Admissions and students

Student life
Queen's provides housing for both undergraduates and postgraduates, although because of the compact size of Northern Ireland many students chose to live at home and commute to the university. In 2005/06, 36 per cent of Queen's students lived in private accommodation within Belfast, 29 per cent lived with parents or guardians, 20 per cent in private accommodation outside of Belfast, and 10 per cent lived in university maintained accommodation.
The university provides accommodation on a 'student village' called Elms Village, located on the Malone Road, south of the main campus, as well as in a number of houses in the South Belfast area, including at College Gardens and on Mount Charles.

Housing
The university hosts the annual Belfast Festival at Queen's and the Belfast Film Festival, and in 2007 is holding the Irish Student Drama Association Festival. It runs Northern Ireland's only arthouse cinema, Queen's Film Theatre, and an art gallery, the Naughton Gallery at Queen's, which is a registered museum. The university's Students' Union is located opposite the main campus and has recently had a complete refurbishment. The Union calls its main hall the Mandela Hall (formerly known as the McMordie Hall), The QUB boathouse, home of Queen's University Belfast Boat Club (QUBBC) and Queen's University of Belfast Ladies Boat Club (QUBLBC), is located on the River Lagan near Stranmillis. The Dragonslayers Gaming Society hosts one of Ireland's largest games conventions, Q-Con, in June of each year.

Notable alumni