This reflects the Government’s recognition of the contribution to the British economy made by creative industries such as fashion, music and art. This year, the AHRB is finally poised to become a full research council, which will put research in the arts on a more equal footing with the sciences.Three-year fellowships in creative and performing arts are one way in which the AHRB has been supporting those snapping at the heels of Damien Hirst and Vivienne Westwood. Academic research in these fields is relatively new, but the researchers still have to set out their projects in the same structured way as science researchers do. Dan Shipway, whose doctoral research is supported by the AHRB at Ulster University, produces five or six exhibitions of his work each year. He recreates rock-climbing routes in art galleries, with scaffolding to allow viewers to clamber up them. For Dan, the cultural contribution of his research is as much in the methodology as the final product.

It goes to prove that research has many faces – including rock faces.education independent.co.uk. Overwhelmingly Northern Irish in its student population, Queen’s is the Province’s oldest university, known for educating the lawyers, doctors and accountants of Northern Ireland. The Irish Sea has separated it from UK higher education geographically and culturally; it is very much on the margins of the UK, but it compensates by being fantastically friendly and community spirited.Founded in 1849, it is centred on the Tudor revivalist Lanyon building in leafy south Belfast, an imposing red-brick structure with stained-glass windows and a tower copied from Magdalen College, Oxford.
The ethos is firmly non-denominational, but both sides of the sectarian divide claim Queen’s as their own. Nowadays, the student body contains more Catholics than Protestants, reflecting the make-up of the 18-to-21 age group. Traditionally, however, it was known for its Protestant majority. In the Sixties the Republicans began to dominate the students’ union, but the political mix is better now.Famous alumni come from both sides of the divide – the poet Seamus Heaney and Northern Ireland’s first minister, David Trimble. Nick Ross, the BBC TV presenter, was one British student who made the journey across the Irish Sea.

The actors Liam Neeson and Stephen Rea were also students as was the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese .For the past five years the university has been honing its position in the league tables. It now claims to be equal to the best civic universities in Britain, having climbed from 24th to 19th in the research-power league table, which takes account of performance and the number of staff submitted. In The Independent’s research league table it rose from 48th to 42nd. In teaching it has also powered ahead, moving from 29th to 15th.Its aim is to become more international and that will take time.