Queen's University Belfast

The university traces its roots to 1810, when the Belfast Academical Institution was founded. When Queen’s was established, the Institution’s collegiate department closed and four of its professors and many of its students moved to the new college.⁠[1]

The university was founded by Royal Charter in 1845, established by Queen Victoria as the Queen’s University in Ireland, a non-denominational alternative to Trinity College Dublin, then controlled by the Anglican Church. It comprised three Queen’s Colleges, in Cork, Galway and Belfast, which were formally established on December 30, 1845, and named after the reigning monarch.⁠[1]

Queen’s College Belfast opened in 1849, four years after the Irish Colleges Act created colleges in Belfast, Cork and Galway, with a first intake of 90 students. Its main building, designed by Charles Lanyon on the model of Magdalen College at the University of OxfordUniversity of OxfordThe University of Oxford is a university in Oxford, England, where teaching existed in some form by 1096; it describes itself as the oldest university in the English-speaking world and is organised as a federal system of the university and dozens of self-governing colleges.Open the full entry, was completed in 1849 and is now the Lanyon Building. Faculties of Arts, Medicine and Law were set up, followed by the Literary and Scientific Society (“The Literific”).⁠[2][1]

Construction of the library led by William Henry Lynn, now The Graduate School, began in 1866; a gymnasium followed in 1873 and the first chemical and pharmaceutical laboratories in 1894. A bazaar in 1894 raised funds for a Students’ Union building, whose foundation stone was laid in 1896. The engineer and physicist James Thomson worked at Queen’s until 1873.⁠[2]

In 1879 the Royal University replaced the Queen’s University in Ireland. In 1902 the Royal Commission on Irish University Education met at Queen’s, where discussions were led by Rev Thomas Hamilton, president since 1889.⁠[1][2]

The Irish Universities Act of 1908 separated Belfast from the Cork and Galway colleges and gave it autonomy: the three Queen’s Colleges and the Royal University were dissolved and replaced by the Queen’s University of Belfast and the National University of Ireland. As an independent institution with its own Senate, the university made Rev Thomas Hamilton its first President and Vice-Chancellor, and Sir Robert Hart was appointed Pro-Chancellor. In 1909 it had about 600 students, mostly from the historic nine counties of Ulster.⁠[1][2]

In 1914 William Whitla was appointed Pro-Chancellor; he later left his estate, including his Lennoxvale home, to the university, and Lennoxvale is now the Vice-Chancellor’s residence. During the First World War part of the grounds became a military hospital, and student numbers rose from 584 in 1914 to 888 in 1918, 60 per cent of them medical students. In 1923 a war memorial by Sir Thomas Brock was erected listing 254 alumni who died, including 55 doctors and medical students.⁠[2][1]

The Faculty of Applied Science and Technology was established in 1921, agricultural research began in 1922, and the Faculty of Theology was founded in 1926, when the School of Dentistry also developed within Medicine. Winston ChurchillWinston ChurchillSir Winston Churchill (1874–1965) was a British Conservative statesman and writer who served as Prime Minister in 1940–1945 and 1951–1955, led Britain through the Second World War and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.Open the full entry, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, received an honorary doctorate in 1926. A women’s Students’ Hall opened at 20–21 University Square in 1927; in 1931 Mary Johnstone Lynn, a 1912 graduate, became the first woman appointed to a permanent lectureship, in botany; and in 1932 a women’s pavilion was erected at the Cherryvale playing fields.⁠[2]

In 1945 a stained glass window by JE Nuttgens was installed in the Black & White Hall. The Sir William Whitla Hall was completed and opened in 1949.⁠[2][1]

In 1950 Philip Larkin was appointed sub-librarian. Queen Elizabeth II visited with the Duke of Edinburgh in 1953, shortly after the Coronation. In 1955 the Students’ Union established The Gown, which the university describes as the longest-running student publication in the UK. The Queen’s Gaelic football team won the Sigerson Cup for the first time in 1958. In 1959 the university held Golden Jubilee celebrations alongside a building programme for medicine, engineering and science, and the David Keir Building, named after Sir David Lindsay Keir, opened.⁠[2][1]

In 1962 Michael Emmerson launched the Queen’s Festival, now the Belfast International Arts Festival, and the Queen Mother opened the new Physics Building. In 1964 John Stewart Bell published Bell’s Theorem. In 1965 Professor Frank Pantridge invented the world’s first portable defibrillator.⁠[2]

The Ashby Building opened in 1966, the year Queen Elizabeth II opened the Social Sciences Building; a new Students’ Union Building opened in 1967, the Medical Biology Centre and Science Library were built in 1968, and the PEC Building opened in 1971.⁠[2]

Sir Peter Froggatt was elected President and Vice-Chancellor in 1976, and Sir Rowland Wright was elected Chancellor in 1984. In 1994 Mary McAleese, a 1973 Law graduate, became the university’s first female Pro-Vice-Chancellor; she later served as the eighth President of Ireland from November 1997 to November 2011. Sir Gordon Beveridge retired in 1997. Senator George J Mitchell was appointed Chancellor in 1999.⁠[2][1]

In 1995 alumnus Seamus Heaney won the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1998 Lord Trimble, a Queen’s graduate and former First Minister of Northern Ireland, won the Nobel Peace Prize.⁠[1]

Peter Gregson became Vice-Chancellor in August 2004. In 2004 Karlheinz Stockhausen opened the Sonic Arts Centre, the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry opened, and the £37 million ECIT research flagship, conceived by Professor John McCanny, launched at the Northern Ireland Science Park, now Catalyst. In 2005 the UK’s first Institute of Agri-food and Land Use was formed and the International Research Centre for Experimental Physics (IRCEP) opened.⁠[3][2]

In November 2006 the Russell Group admitted Queen’s University Belfast as its twentieth member and announced that Wendy Piatt would become its director-general. Peter Gregson called the invitation “tremendous news” that would help the university build national and international connections. The university states that Gregson led Queen’s into the Russell Group in 2006.⁠[3][1][4]

In 2008 Queen Elizabeth II unveiled a centenary stone, Nelson Mandela was named Centenary Honorary Graduate, and Senator George J Mitchell opened the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology. In 2009 Queen’s was named UK Entrepreneurial University of the Year.⁠[2][1]

In 2012 China Queen’s College was established and the Institute for Global Food Security was formed.⁠[2]

Professor Patrick G Johnston served as President and Vice-Chancellor from 2014 until his death in 2017. In 2015 the university was restructured into three faculties, The Graduate School was restored from the old Lynn library, and the physicist Peter Higgs received an honorary degree. In 2017 conservation work began on the Lanyon Building and the new Computer Science Building opened.⁠[2]

Professor Sir Ian Greer has been President and Vice-Chancellor since August 2018. As the university’s chief executive he reports to the Senate and chairs the University Management Board. A medical graduate of the University of GlasgowUniversity of GlasgowThe University of Glasgow is a research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1451, it describes itself as the fourth oldest university in the UK, and it is a member of the Russell Group.Open the full entry with a clinical and research background in obstetrics, gynaecology and women’s health, he was previously Vice President of the University of ManchesterUniversity of ManchesterThe University of Manchester is a research university in Manchester, England, formed in 2004 by combining the Victoria University of Manchester and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). It traces its origins to 1824 and is a member of the Russell Group.Open the full entry.⁠[5][6]

Hillary Rodham Clinton received an honorary degree from the university in October 2018 and was appointed Chancellor in January 2020 for a five-year term, becoming its 11th Chancellor and its first female Chancellor; she was formally installed at a ceremony in the Whitla Hall in September 2021. The university cites her contribution to peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.⁠[7][8]

In 2020 Queen’s won its seventh Queen’s Anniversary Prize, for its work on Shared Education.⁠[2]

In 2023 Queen’s hosted the Agreement 25 conference marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. In January 2024 it received an institutional Gold Athena Swan Award, which it describes as the first on the island of Ireland and only the second in the UK. On April 23, 2024, it announced plans to seek University of Sanctuary recognition.⁠[2]

On June 11, 2024, the university announced that construction had started at Global Point, Newtownabbey, on the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre (AMIC) “Factory of the Future,” led by Queen’s. The facility of about 10,000 square metres, with capacity for 150 staff, is part of a wider £230 million Queen’s-led innovation programme and gives the manufacturing, materials and engineering sectors access to the latest digital, automation and robotics technology.⁠[9]

The centre began operating in April 2026 and was officially opened in October 2026. The £100 million investment includes £78 million from the UK Government, £10 million from Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, £8 million from Queen’s and £1.3 million from Ulster University; the centre is expected to create up to 1,500 jobs and to support the training of 300 apprentices by 2050.⁠[10]

Professor Richard Miles has been Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor since March 2025.⁠[6]

In 2024–25 (August 1, 2024, to July 31, 2025), the university’s total income was £489.5 million and it secured £124.6 million in competitive research awards. It had more than 26,000 students from over 120 countries and more than 4,500 staff from almost 100 countries, and 230,000 graduates. A London Economics estimate puts its annual economic impact at more than £3.35 billion.⁠[11]

On October 13, 2026, former US President Barack Obama received an honorary degree at a ceremony at Queen’s, before taking part in a conversation hosted by the writer and journalist Susan McKay at Belfast’s O2 arena.⁠[12]

The university has three faculties, Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; Engineering and Physical Sciences; and Medicine, Health and Life Sciences, each headed by a Pro-Vice-Chancellor, with 15 schools. Dr Ryan Feeney, Vice-President and Registrar, is Secretary to the Senate and Academic Council.⁠[6]

The Chancellor is the titular head of the university, with ceremonial duties including presiding at degree congregations, an ambassadorial role for the university worldwide and an advisory role for the President and Vice-Chancellor, the Senate and the management team.⁠[8]

The university shares the motto “Pro Tanto Quid Retribuamus” (“What shall we give in return for so much?”) with the city of Belfast. It describes itself as the UK’s ninth oldest university, and its estate now has more than 300 buildings, many listed for their architectural importance. Charles Lanyon, the Lanyon Building’s architect, also designed Belfast Castle, Crumlin Road Gaol and the Customs House.⁠[1]

Graduates highlighted by the university include Seamus Heaney, the physicist John Stewart Bell and James Francis Pantridge, described as the father of emergency medicine. It is ranked among the top 200 universities worldwide in the QS World University Rankings 2026, and in REF 2021, 99% of its submitted research was rated world-leading or internationally excellent.⁠[13]

Its spin-out portfolio has a combined annual turnover of £171 million and has created 2,700 jobs, and the university states that half of Northern Ireland’s public companies were created at Queen’s, including Kainos Group Plc, Andor Technology and Fusion Antibodies Plc. It was ranked the UK’s most entrepreneurial university in the Octopus Ventures Impact Rankings in 2019 and 2020, and second in 2022.⁠[13]

Queen’s University Belfast: Official website: https://www.qub.ac.uk/ (opens in a new window).⁠[14]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Come2Queens (opens in a new window).⁠[14]