Stranmillis University College Campus

Stranmillis University College is located in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Belfast is the capital city of Northern Ireland, and a good jumping off point for tourism in the province. The University College is conveniently located to the major airports and sea ports, being only 40 minutes from Belfast International Airport, 15 minutes from Belfast City Airport, 15 minutes from the Port of Belfast, and less than two miles from the City Centre.

It is one of the most attractive campuses in the British Isles. The University College campus occupies a completely enclosed site of great natural beauty - the College grounds consist of 18 hectares of woodland richly endowed with wildlife.

The University College lies in a tranquil and attractive part of Belfast, in one of the most desirable leafy residential areas of the City. Yet it is on the edge of the University district, and the buzz of Belfast's city centre.

Only a few minutes walk away, towards the city centre, are the cafes, restaurants, take-aways, and shops of Stranmillis Village. The "Village", as it is known is the home of the Lyric Players Theatre, acclaimed for its adventurous programme policy and its high quality productions.

Just beyond the Village are the Botanic Gardens with their renowned Victorian Palm House, an elegant structure of curved glass and cast iron dating from 1839.

Adjoining the Botanic Gardens is the Ulster Museum, famous for its collections of antiquities, its art galleries and specialist exhibitions. One of its collections is the gold and silver jewelry recovered by divers in 1968 from the Spanish Armada treasure ship Girona, which was wrecked off the Giant's Causeway in 1588.

Next is the Queen's University of Belfast, whose original building from 1849 still forms the Tudor-Gothic facade of the University. It was designed by Charles Lanyon who designed just about every building of note in Belfast.

Just beyond the University area, is the bustling night life of Belfast's "Golden Mile" of entertainment, with its Grand Opera House, Concert Hall, theatres, cinemas, and a bewildering variety of restaurants.

Finally we arrive at the main shopping area of Belfast, dominated by the City Hall, built around 1903, in the grand Classical Renaissance style, with an Italian marble interior, looking rather like an American state capitol building.

Stranmillis University College was founded in 1922 to provide state-funded teacher training in the northern portion of the then recently partitioned island. Until then most teachers in Ulster schools had been trained in Dublin. The new Northern Ireland government decided to open its own college and purchased for the purpose Stranmillis House (left), also designed by Charles Lanyon, built of sandstone and completed in 1858, with its attractive estate of 46 acres - only two miles from the centre of Belfast.

Facilities have been much extended and improved in the last seventy years. These now include: the Main Building (above), designed by the government architect Ingleby Smith, completed in 1929 in Bankers' Georgian style.  The Henry Garrett Building - unique because as it was built immediately after the Second World War it originally contained no wood whatsoever in its construction; the Orchard Building and the Central Building. These provide the administration and the general and specialist teaching accommodation.

In addition there are modern Halls of Residence and an associated Refectory, a Studio Theatre, an Information Technology Centre, a Learning Resources Unit, a Language and Literacy Centre, Conference Halls and a purpose built Library with seating for 300 readers and a stock of over 100,000 items. Stranmillis House now contains the Students Union, the College Club ('Scholars') and various common rooms.

Today the University College is a multi-professional institution, no longer engaged solely in the education of teachers. It offers pre-service and in-service professional courses, undergraduate and postgraduate, for some 1100 full-time equivalent students. All University College courses lead to a qualification validated and awarded by the Queen's University of Belfast.

It is also involved in induction courses and offers a range of consultancy services to Northern Ireland schools, Education and Library Boards and to other education agencies.

In recent years the University College has hosted a number of significant curriculum development projects in various subject areas and has published a range of support material for schools.

As all students are also enrolled at Queen's University, they have access to all the usual university facilities just a short walk from the University College campus.

The University College has an especially close working relationship with St. Mary's University College in Belfast. Joint teaching takes place within a number of subjects which are offered in both University Colleges. The University College has established partnerships with similar higher education institutions throughout the European Union and beyond. These offer students the opportunity to study and work in other European countries as part of their undergraduate course or to undertake school-based work only in the USA, Norway, Republic of Ireland and South Africa.