Queen’s University Belfast to lose 1,000 student places

Queen’s University Belfast is to cut its student intake by more than 1,000 and shed 236 jobs because of an £8 million reduction in its Stormont funding.

The university plans to cut the number of undergraduate places by 1,010 over the next three years. Its current student population – taking in undergraduates, post-graduates and part-time students – is 23,000, with 14,500 of them undergraduates.

The university, which employs about 3,500 people, plans to cut 236 academic and non-academic jobs through voluntary redundancy.

The college said it was forced to take this action because of an £8 million cut in its funding from the Department of Employment and Learning.

Queen’s operates on an annual budget of about £300 million with £97 million of that figure coming from the department, and most of the remainder from tuition fees and philanthropic donations.