Belfast campus

The Belfast campus on York Street is part of the city’s vibrant Cathedral Quarter. Recognised as the historic heart of Belfast the Cathedral Quarter is the city’s up and coming cultural hotspot. The area is richly endowed with historical, political and artistic character. The area is part of a dynamic arts scene and the campus plays host to a number of annual festivals including the Ulster Festival of Art and Design.

The campus is made up of two separate buildings which are connected via a suspended walkway above York Street. Following a major £30 million refurbishment and redevelopment programme students and visitors have access to excellent purpose-built design space, studios for recording and editing live and off-air television, sound recording, mixing and animation, teaching and exhibition areas as well as a new Learning Resource Centre (LRC).

The LRC, located on Level B of the Warwick building, adjacent to the Conor Lecture theatre, offers study and learning facilities via 108 networked computers and a further 148 personal study spaces arranged in study rooms, clusters and informal groupings of different sizes to reflect the varying preferences of users. It is fully Wi-Fi enabled for laptop users and computer printing and photocopying facilities are also available.

The campus is currently home to the School of Art and Design and the School of Architecture and Design although other disciplines are increasingly being taught here including programmes offered by the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management.

There are plentiful and diverse options for those wishing to eat on campus and all restaurants and cafes are open to staff, students and the public. Choices include the Tao Noodle Bar, The Streat, the Studio Bar as well as the Academy Training Restaurant, which is staffed by students from the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management.

The Students' Union Studio Bar is a popular and established venue on the Belfast music circuit, attracting local and touring bands. The bar is also a great lunchtime venue for students and staff alike and it serves tea, coffee and sandwiches throughout the day.

Students seeking accommodation are usually placed in Halls of Residence on the Jordanstown campus or in private rented accommodation in the student quarter in the south of the city where there is a good range of moderately priced restaurants, pubs, theatres and shops. Public transport links both to and from the campus are excellent.

Impressive sport and recreation facilities are offered at the Jordanstown campus, seven miles away. For those interested in other more leisurely pursuits the nearby Odyssey complex, in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter, is home to the Belfast Giants ice hockey team, a science and technology centre, numerous bars and restaurants as well as a 12-screen cinema.

As a regional capital, there is plenty for visitors to do and see in Belfast. Its popularity as a destination for short breaks from other parts of the UK and Ireland has grown enormously in recent years thanks to excellent leisure and tourist facilities and cheap and regular travel links. Belfast City Airport is four miles from the campus and Belfast International Airport is 22 miles away. Both airports have excellent connecting transport links to Belfast and they service domestic and international routes. As Belfast is a sea port both it and nearby Larne have traditional ferry and high speed boat services to Scotland and England.