At Queen’s, we recognise that many students with the capacity to become successful business owners might not consider the option of entrepreneurship, while many others don’t realise how valuable strong enterprise skills and aptitudes have become within employment environments. Queen’s Students Union, Graduate School and QUBIS work in partnership to deliver a range of programmes which inspire students to consider entrepreneurship, engage them in activities to develop their skills, and accelerates those who have strong business ideas or entrepreneurial skills to achieve success. An important part of these programmes is giving students, like Kieron, the opportunity to pitch for seed funding to enhance their business idea.

The Art Alley project promotes social cohesion by energising local student and non-student residents to find common ground and take pride and ownership of the physical area. Queen’s student volunteers, staff and residents joined forces to tidy, paint and plant along the University Square Mews, add a sensory garden area and transform the space into a vibrant, welcoming space that residents, students and employees can enjoy together. Improving the immediate physical environment of the alleyway facilitates positive student-resident interaction, fostering the sense of community in the area.

The Women in Engineering event hosted 4 guest speakers: a female professor of Structural Engineering within Queen’s, a former PhD student who now works closely with Stage 3 Civil Engineering students on the Design and Communications 3 module and working in industry, and two who are working in industry; one with a university background and the other an apprenticeship background. The event was organised to promote female success, look at how engineering has developed to become more inclusive, challenges faced, whilst ensuring a positive and celebratory environment for past and future female engineering students throughout Queen’s.

The project is in early stages but interactions between staff and students have been very positive with students able to apply their knowledge and learning to this real-life project which will help the people of Northern Ireland, particularly those with Visual Impairment, keep up to date with Eye Health news and scientific developments in the field of Ophthalmology. Ultimately the hard work of the staff and students during this project has enhanced working relationships across a diverse range of staff and student groups with the added bonus that the people of Northern Ireland are receiving information on Eye Health from experts in the field, hosted by enthusiastic students.

The project focused on wellbeing and positive mental health, as the added responsibilities that mature students often face can create additional pressure. Mature students can often have more complex circumstances than that of other members of the student body. Circumstances can include caring for elderly parents, children, and other family commitments. By organising wellbeing and positive mental health workshops, the Widening Participation Unit (WPU) is supporting these students to cope with balancing their studies and their personal responsibilities.

Your donations have helped sport’s clubs and societies across campus to launch new initiatives, purchase much needed equipment and take part in different competitions and tournaments. This helps students to lead a healthy, active lifestyle whether they are playing for fun or playing to win. One of the highlights was the Irish Intervarsity Climbing Competition, hosted and attended by QUB’S Mountaineering Club. 210 students from 10 universities and colleges from across Ireland competed in 2 climbing disciplines, with 27 of those students representing Queen’s University Belfast.

The KN Cheung SK Chin InterSim Centre is a cutting-edge simulation facility at Queen’s University Belfast, offering a unique environment that promotes excellence in simulation-based healthcare education. The generous support of a distinguished group of donors has helped to establish this unique Simulation Centre.

The event attracted students from backgrounds including paramedic students, medical students and nursing students from both Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast. This encouraged multi-Disciplinary working which mirrors the working environment in the NHS. In the first part of the morning, we had talks from the Medical Lead for the Ambulance Service, a Consultant Plastic Surgeon and a Registrar in Cardiothoracic Surgery. These talks appealed to the broad background of students who were in attendance. They covered triage of patients in a mass casualty event, burns and surgical management of trauma patients after they have come through A&E. This allowed students to gain academic knowledge for their studies and in particular talking to the junior registrar about how to access certain career pathways after graduation. 

Nursing can be a demanding career and can sometimes lead to stress and burnout. Your donations have helped to launch a new initiative within the School of Nursing and Midwifery with the following three key objectives for its students:

1. Embed proactive approaches to self-care
2. Facilitate the development of coping strategies for stress
3. Reach approximately 325 students in year one September cohort of students and 250 in February cohort

This initiative successfully builds on existing activity within the School, such as the ‘Wellbeing Ambassadors Programme’, to develop a comprehensive programme for nursing students, based on the 5 pillars of holistic wellness: mental, emotional, physical, spiritual and social wellbeing.

Your donations helped to support a range of mental health and wellbeing initiatives across the University, one of which was the School of Pharmacy’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Group. Link to news archive page

With support from the Annual Fund 16 students have been trained in Aware NI’s Mental Health First Aid training programme. These students also use their training to raise awareness of positive mental health within the 700 strong student body of the School.

Hear from Aoife - a member of the School of Pharmacy’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Group - in the video below.

The Seamus Heaney Centre project was open to all postgrad students in Creative Writing (MA in Poetry, MA in Creative Writing, and PhD) and was extremely successful in providing a platform to learn and a showcase for its students.

Your donations were able to support a raft of activity including: an MA Script Showcase featuring new scripts by MA students voiced by actors in the Brian Friel Theatre, a PhD student podcast, guest tutor and weekly workshops attended by over 60 students and a ‘Writing and the City’ event with 32 participants.

Find out more from Suzi and Dara in the video below.

Your support was integral to the students in QUB Scrubs Society being able to coordinate and deliver the Emergency Medical Conference 2022 event. The event offered a professional, stimulating and educational experience for 60 participants, the majority of which were medical students.

Participants engaged in a series of practical workshops with various themes including airway management, major haemorrhage protocol, point of care ultrasound, critical care transport, suturing skills and a road traffic collision simulation. The event also made use of QUB’s new cutting-edge InterSim facilities and medical equipment which enhanced the learning experience for participants, preparing the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Hear from Keara & Beth on the 2022 Emergency Medicine Conference in the video below.

Your donations have helped sports clubs and societies across campus to launch new initiatives, purchase much needed equipment and take part in different competitions and tournaments.

This helps students to lead a healthy, active lifestyle whether they are playing for fun or playing to win. One of the highlights was the Queens University of Belfast Rugby Football Club Canada Tour. The first of its kind in over forty years, and an exciting opportunity which saw a top-quality squad compete against university sides and senior local clubs in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa.

Your donation is helping to support ten, full-time paid internships for students and graduates with autism to gain knowledge, skills, and experience to move successfully into employment after graduation.

Queen’s University, Santander and Ambitious about Autism are expanding employment opportunities for students and graduates with autism in Northern Ireland.

As educators and employers, we want every student and employee to progress and succeed in the world of work. Unfortunately, this is simply not the reality for the vast majority of autistic graduates. 31% of graduates disclosing an autism diagnosis found full time work and 16% of individuals with autism are in full-time, paid employment, even though the vast majority want to work.*

Your donations helped to support a range of mental health and wellbeing initiatives across the University. With support from the Annual Fund, mental health champions throughout the University ran two events as part of Mental Health Week 2021, in March, in collaboration with Mind Your Mood, a student-led mental health campaign. These free mental health initiatives are vital for students dealing with academic and personal stress, especially in the context of a pandemic.

Thanks to your support, the following events took place:

The MSc Scholarship programme for Nurses & Midwives was established in honour of the inaugural professor of Nursing & Midwifery at Queen’s, the late Professor Jean Orr.

Your donation will help to benefit 10 student nurses at Queen’s in year one of the programme.

In 2020/21, nurses have been at the forefront of the public’s minds as they worked to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. They have worked long hours in extremely difficult conditions, administering treatment and care to patients, and staying with a great number of people as they died alone.

Your support contributed towards a match fund which was used to create two MA Poetry scholarships in honour of Michael Longley.

Months ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic and the isolation it has resulted in for many individuals around the world members of the University's student GP Society applied to the Queen's Annual Fund for support to launch an initiative to tackle loneliness in the community.

Gary Mitchell, lecturer in the School and former Student of the Year, applied to the Queen's Annual Fund to pilot a student nurse mental health peer support network, working in partnership with colleagues Susan Carlisle (Senior Lecturer and Year 1 Lead) and Derek McLaughlin (Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead for Mental Health Nursing), to train 20 nursing students to become 'mental health first-aiders'. Students undertaking the training will take on the role as mental health champion for the duration of the three-year course.

Seamus Heaney Centre (SHC) Coordinator Rachel Brown had a very clear set of goals for the Queen's Annual Fund supported project; to provide public platforms for student work to be heard and seen, to support student professional development, build confidence and industry-relevant skills and to develop external cultural partnerships. "Our graduates go on to do wonderful things and we're proud to be able to give them a platform in the early days of their careers." Rachel commented.

QUB Scrubs held its first Surgical Skills Conference at the Medical Biology Centre and the first conference of its kind, the society reported, in Northern Ireland. Professor Keith Gardiner, Postgraduate Dean and Chair of the Northern Ireland Medical & Dental training Agency and Consultant Colorectal Surgeon opened the event and provided an informative discussion on surgical training and opportunities for medical students within Northern Ireland.

With registration covered by the Queen's Annual Fund, 10 members of the Judo club competed in the All Ireland University Judo Championships in Galway. Marie Phillips, project and club lead said "We had great results, winning 8 medals in total! 1 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze". Participating in the competition had many other benefits as well, Marie went on to say "It was a memorable experience, we gained confidence by testing our skills against individuals outside of our club in a competition setting", "We learnt from mistakes and losses and celebrated wins".

With approximately 1,500 households and over 5,000 students in the 'Holylands' area beside the University, Advice SU applied to the Queen's Annual Fund to design and deliver an innovative way to engage students on their rights and responsibilities in relation to living safely and responsibly in the local community.

With over a thousand people attending, including the Vice-Chancellors from Queen's and Ulster University and representatives from the Chinese Consulate, the Chinese Society's new year gala event, supported by the Queen's Annual Fund, was a huge success.