Reviewed on Mar 10, 2025(Enrolled 2024)
What Students Say
Likes
- Location (Belfast), Is a great place. Not too small or to big just the right size. everything is accessible and transport system is pretty efficient. The land is not only beautiful but filled with friendly and helping people. Sufficient Jobs in the market in terms of Part-Time.
- Academic Staff Roster. The professors are absolutely the best. Many of them are industry leaders and their research is world famous. A few of the professors have written multiple book and have yearly volumes with updates. They teach amazing and have the right tools to do so.
- Facilities are world class. They have library size of a small village. Sufficient computer labs and electronic assessment centers. Classes are fully equipped with tech for teachers aids and students aid. The university has its own Student Union building as well. Has all that anyone can imagine from breakout rooms to group discussion rooms. Chill space and Union Bar. The University has its own clinic and hospital as well.
Dislikes
- Nothing particularly. Enough opportunities and university aims to improve everyday.
- The candidate needs to be open for the opportunities and keep ups killing with the community. University has all the supports in place to help but won't be served on a golden plate.
Course Curriculum
10
- The course is very interesting and can be quite difficult for new members to the field. Queen's does provide a pre-joining course also named INTO Queens where they train and test you with the basics for the actual course to start. Since my course is linked with ACCA and CIMA professional bodies, it is very difficult for someone to understand for new members of this course. Make sure to read through the level of the course before joining the same
- The assessment is done in a hybrid model where we have continuous assignments and written examinations every semester. The assignments are quite different from the Indian education system and can be difficult to understand once in a while. The rubrics for the marking schemes are quite complex and a proper understanding of what is required and needed has to be analysed before heading with the actual assignments. This is where the academic English comes in clutch. Make sure you attend it and get a proper understanding of critical writing and how to use Manchester phrase bank for your assignments. Referencing has to be done rightly and in-text citations play a major role.
Admission Experience
-
I applied for three universities in UK -
- Queen's University Belfast: ADMITTED (CURRENTLY STUDENT)
- University Of Bristol - ADMITTED (£39,000 Fees were too much for my financials)
- University of Manchester, REJECTED I have no idea why? No sort of communication from Manchester after application. Not even a mail confirmation. Maybe my application was late and there selection process was completed.)
- I applied to one University in Republic of Ireland:
- University College of Dublin, Waitlisted (I had a scheduled interview but I cancelled on it since I decided to go for the UK rather than the Republic of Ireland).
- I chose Queen's University Belfast for its student support cell, affordable fees, scholarships, Russell Group status, world-class infrastructure, excellent professors and industry-oriented course subjects that interested me.
- The admissions process was pretty easy. You send out your application from there website; after that, if your profile qualifies for the first screening, you will be given a conditional letter. Once you receive that, specific requirements would be mentioned in terms of your course and profile. Since I had passed Class XII English with 87 and had active work experience in a renowned company, my IELTS was wavered, and I did not have to give that. The documents asked during this stage would be a passport, degree (Bachelors), marks card, work experience letter, letter of recommendation if any and references. Then, once you have met with all these, you will be given an unconditional letter. You can use this letter to source an education loan. Also, the unconditional letter will have scholarship details as well. Scholarship exams and processes can be done before or after this as well. If you do after, make sure to ask for an updated unconditional letter. The move from conditional to unconditional letter also needs a £1000 deposit (refundable if not selected). If selected, then used against your academic fees. Not refundable if you change your mind and don't wish to go ahead with QUB anymore. After this, you will be given a CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance of Studies) letter. This is required for your UKVI visa process. During this time, to get the CAS, you need to pay another £5000. This is by law of UKVI and not the university. UKVI states that to issue CAS, they need to pay between £2000 and £5000 (which goes towards your academic fees so there's nothing extra), depending on the university. Once the CAS is received, apply for a visa with the CAS and many more documents that are listed on the UK Immigration website under the Student Visa Documents checklist. You will get a personalized checklist once you apply for a visa as well. Once Visa and Vignette received, Yay!
- The acceptance requirement depends course to course. For the master's course, I believe the IELTS score needs to be 6.5 Band with no less than 5.5 in any module (do re-check though). Each course has entry requirements as well, like a minimum score in undergraduates of 60% or higher and many more. You can get this info on the QUB website under the specific course you are looking for with the heading "ENTRY REQUIREMENTS.".
- The process for the application in my case was not too difficult. Be aware, be careful and use common sense. Get's the job done. Don't know, no worries; the university has paid staff to help you with that. In fact, QUB will hold weekly doubt sessions for all its prospective students. You can meet student ambassadors and faculties through such online meetings as well. Online meetings do not cut it for you? No worries! QUB hosts pre-departure meets physically in Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Delhi (subject to change year to year). You have the QUB South-East Asia team also for support and assistance with the application to travel. ASK FOR HELP; DON'T SHY AWAY!
- September 2024 Intake : Application started in January and ended in August. This is from applying to obtain a visa. Point to be kept in mind is the CAS process starts in April and no matter what you do, you will not get it before May end. So make sure you use all that time and make sure you clear IELTS and other pre-requisites before that period of time.
Class Schedule
10
- Classes, in my case, are typically all along the week. In my case, I have only one day in the working week when no classes are scheduled. The classes mostly are between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm, with some exceptions of classes that can start as early as 9:00 am and as late as 7:00 pm. This is subject to change as per class scheduling each year and each semester wise.
- MSc Accounting & Finance Sep 2024 batch has around 50 students. There are quite a few students from India. But, this depends course to course and a few courses can have less strength of Indians, which will push you out of your comfort zone and is nothing to be afraid of.
Faculty
10
- The professors are absolutely the best. Many of them are industry leaders and their research is world-famous. A few of the professors have written multiple books and have yearly volumes with updates. They teach amazing and have the right tools to do so. Some subjects are harder to digest than others but the efforts of the faculty members are always at their highest.
- Though it is to be noted that it is an extensive syllabus and itself professor to recommend to go through the teaching and materials at your own time to get a full understanding of the same. The resources will be provided before hand for understanding and asking questions to the professor.
Campus Life
10
- Queen's University Belfast is spread across Belfast. All the different schools have different school buildings at different locations. Like the Canyon Building, Riddel Hall (Business School), David Care Building (School of Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals), Ashby Building (School of Engineering and Design), Computer School Building and many more. They are all scattered across the city.
- The university has its own student union, Queen Sports Centre (which includes all sports gyms and rock climbing as well), Queens Hospital, Queens Clinic, Queens Assessment hub & McClay Library. Many more.
- The university has over 200+ active clubs and societies for you to join and take an interest in. All clubs are active and can be joined without any additional cost in most cases. Queens also has a pantry, which gives free groceries twice a week to all its students. There is a swap shop as well where you can swap your clothes, shoes, books and many more for any other item from the swap shop.
- The university has many cafes and breakout areas for its students, like Hope Cafe, Business and Becomings, social and many more. Queen's has active events, which you can see and register for from the events page of QUB and SU (Student Union). All major Indian festivals like Diwali, Holi, etc. are celebrated by queens and a plethora of events are hosted for the same.
Part Time Jobs
- Part-time jobs are available across the city. If we talk about university jobs, the university has its own platform named Work where you can find work for yourself in the university. Many people like me have gotten the job of student ambassador. There are more positions, like residential life coordinator and many more. Most of this work can be found in Work and applied for. These jobs generally pay £11.44-£18/hour. Jobs outside the university are also available and are based on a contract basis. The pay is based on your age, which you can check out on the UKVI page for the part-time worker minimum wage. These wages vary from £11 to £15/hour, where above £12.5/hour is offered for mostly night shift jobs.
- As per UKVI regulation, an international student is only allowed to work 20 hours per week and no longer than that except in the holiday season of Christmas and Easter, when you can work 40 hours a week, which is not recommendable but is possible.
- Jobs are not difficult to find; you just need to represent yourself right and have good communication skills with a strong CV. The Employability course at QBS will help you gain such market insights.
- Indian or any other students can work in university or outside depending upon their preferences. It is not very difficult, as previously stated. They can apply for part-time jobs via Indeed and the direct website of the store's career page, like Sainsbury's Career, McDonald's Career, etc. Make sure that you research where exactly the branch is where you have applied and how you are going to get there.
Placement
8
- The job market here is tricky and needs to have trial and error In applications. The best place to learn more about this is to go to the career fairs hosted by the university. Many companies come to these fairs and help you understand more about the company and get a better idea of the requirements and skillsets wanted by employers. Many get placed and move outside Belfast or UK in general. The QUB (Russell Group) degree opens up horizon all over the world as the degree is globally recognized.
Accommodation
Off Campus
10
- I was lucky enough to get into one of the cheapest accommodations that the QUB has to offer. I stay at a place named Mount Charles. I had applied for it in the month of April 2024. I was allowed a standard room in Mount Charles, which cost £110/week. Small Standard at the same accommodation goes for £85/week. But, as I mentioned before, I had received a £1000 bursary for accommodation; it cost me £90/week for a 51-week contract. In total, I paid £4610 and £300 deposit while booking.
- Mount Charles is basically a house. The washroom and bathroom are shared between 3 members, the kitchen is shared between 4 members and the laundry room & common room are shared among 9 residents. It seems like a lot of sharing but trust me, it is very empty most of the time. The house has one issue though, which is the noise. Since the house is essentially made out of wood, everyone can hear everyone else. The residents need to have an understanding among themselves and must use headphones. The laundry room is only free in Mount Charles and paid in all other locations like BT9, BT1 and BT2. Even private accommodations like Little Patrick Street (LPS), Great Patrick Street (GPS), Nelson Place, Vita and Botanic Studios. Most of these places are going to charge anywhere between £6 and £8 for per round of laundry. But it is free in Mount Charles.
- It is recommended to apply quick and have some research done on the accommodation details provided on Queen's website. Most of the accommodation are located near hot zones. BT1 is in City Centre (too far for business school), BT2 is between City Centre and Queens Lanyon building/Students Union, Mount Charles & College Garden are beside Lanyon building, which is equal distance from business school and city centers so is best for university and city centre run for groceries and lastly BT9 is very near to business school but really far away from city centre. LPS, Student Liv, GPS and Nelson Place are all near Ulster University, which is really, really far away.
Exams
- The acceptance requirement depends course to course. For the master's course, I believe the IELTS score needs to be 6.5 Band with no less than 5.5 in any module (do re-check though). Each course has entry requirements as well, like a minimum score for undergraduates of 60% or higher and many more. You can get this info on the QUB website under the specific course you are looking for with the heading "ENTRY REQUIREMENTS.".
- LOR, CV, UG Degree, Marksheet, IELTS if not waived, Work Letter (if experienced candidate) & Statement of Purpose.
Fees
-
The fees are as follows:
- Course Fees: £25800
- QMS Scholarship (£6000)
- Early Confirmation Award (£1500)
- Accommodation Fees: £5610
- Accommodation Bursary (£1000)
- Total = £22,910
- Academic fees can be paid a complete year or in 3 installments.
- Accommodation can be paid 100% now, 50% now and then 50% in February, 25% now and the rest in equal installments at the end of Jan, February, & March.
- Monthly Cost:
- Food = £150
- Transport = (If you are 23 or under 23, you can take YLink for 50% off on transport.) YLink: £40
- Exploration and recreational activities £30
- Total = £220 (Can be less or more; depends on your living habits)
Scholarship
- I was awarded a QMS Scholarship of £6,000 (for academic fees), an Early Confirmation Award of £1500 and a £1000 accommodation bursary. For Business School, though, £6,000 is the maximum scholarship in academics. Yes, many did receive either £4000 or £6000. I have no idea how many receive but I believe a good chunk of people do. If you give your application right and have a strong profile, almost certainly you will receive a scholarship.
