Short answers, pulled from the story.
Queen's University Belfast received its first charter on the 30th of December 1845 as Queen's College, Belfast, one of three colleges established under the Queen's University of Ireland. It was founded to provide higher education for Catholic and Presbyterian students who were largely excluded from Trinity College, Dublin, which was then almost exclusively Anglican. The college opened its doors in 1849.
Queen's University Belfast is associated with two Nobel Prize winners: poet Seamus Heaney and politician Lord Trimble. The university is also linked to one Turing Award laureate.
Yes. Queen's University Belfast was admitted to the Russell Group, the coalition of research-intensive UK universities, in November 2006. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, the university ranked 37th by grade point average and 24th for research power among UK higher education institutions.
Hillary Clinton is the chancellor of Queen's University Belfast. She was appointed the university's first female chancellor in January 2020 and was inaugurated in September 2021. She had received an honorary doctorate from Queen's in October 2018.
Notable alumni include poet Seamus Heaney, actor Liam Neeson, actor Stephen Rea, former President of Ireland Mary McAleese, Nobel Peace Prize winner Lord Trimble, playwright Lisa McGee, and physicist John Stewart Bell. Frank Pantridge, who developed the portable defibrillator, also studied at Queen's.
Queen's University Belfast reported an annual income of £493.8 million for 2024-25, of which £112.4 million came from research grants and contracts. Expenditure for that year was £511.5 million.