Queen's is inferior to UU, by design mug

The number of people from the Republic studying in the North has greatly decreased since the subject used so bother John Taylor and others in the Ulster Unionist Party. Nevertheless, there are still many who want to study in the North because of different courses and requirements - plus, of course, there's a lot of Irish Times readers there - so it is worth taking a look at university websites from "up there".

Queen's University (www.qub.ac.uk) has a very dry and dull homepage. With a college that old and that famous, you would imagine and hope they would have a history section - there is none. The internal search engine, which is the best and most efficient area of the site, is prominently linked from the homepage, but, overall, there is very little to entice you to stay very long. There is a general lack of basic information - I had to go to the Queen's student union site (www.qubsu.org) to find out there are 23,000 students in the university. The information which is provided on courses, fees, administration etc is difficult to find and so poorly laid out as to make it difficult to read.

While third-level institutes throughout the world use the Internet to sell their wares, Queen's seems to regard it as something barely worth its attention. Broken links and inaccessible areas only add to this impression. A pity.

Much better is Stranmillis University College (www.stranni.ac.uk), a constituent college of Queen's. It clearly has a different web designer and a far more progressive attitude to the Internet. The homepage is bright and colourful with easy to follow links. The sections on specific courses are well designed and full of detail - and the use of pictures throughout the site enhances the content. Its parent college could learn a lot here.

St Mary's University College (www.stmarys-belfast.ac.uk), also part of Queen's, is somewhere between the two. It has given some thought to how information is best presented on the web, but it does not give much detail.

After the mixed results above, the University of Ulster's (www.ulst.ac.uk) site is a joy. The homepage poses the eyecatching question: "Who are you?" Rather than being a way to recognise our computers' cookies, it is, in fact, designed to tailor use of the site to individual use: you can pick from general visitor, staff, current student, prospective student, graduate or business community to describe yourself. Viewing as a prospective student, which is what will drive a lot of traffic their way at this time of year, leads to clear and concise information on courses.

The application and admission area provides a downloadable application form for postgraduate, post-experience and part-time courses. It also gives easy to follow information on what you need in order to apply, and on grants. Unusually, it has a specific area for applicants with criminal records. The University of Ulster comprises four colleges:

Belfast www.ulst.ac.uk/ campus/belfast;

Jordanstown www.ulst. ac.uk/campus/jordanstown;

Coleraine www.ulst. ac.uk/campus/coleraine;

Magee College, Derry www.ulst.ac.uk/campus/magee.

Each has its own separate area within the site with details of what is studied there, where exactly it is and how to get there (you would be surprised at how many sites leave out such basic information), lifestyle, facilities, accommodation, sport and recreation and, helpfully, what the surrounding area has to offer.

The use of pictures is good throughout.

The section on research can confuse but all the necessary information seems to be there. It just takes time to find it.

Individual faculty areas are easy to access and it looks like thought has gone into their design. Particularly useful is the listing of phone, fax, e-mail and office address of members of staff - quite common in US university websites, but hardly ever done here.

Were colleges were to be judged on websites alone, UU would be far ahead of Queen's.