A new business unit at Queen’s University would “put a new dynamic at the heart of business” in Ireland, the former president, Mary McAleese, has said. Prof McAleese was speaking at the opening of the £15 million (€18.4 million) Graduate Executive and Education Centre at the university’s new Riddel Hall campus in Belfast yesterday.

The fact that so much of the cost of the centre was put up by local business was evidence of the enthusiasm to face down the ailing economy, Prof McAleese said. As well as offering courses aimed at strengthening links between graduate programmes and industry, the centre is also home to the North’s first stock exchange, where the executives of the future can hone their financial skills.

In a separate development, Queen’s yesterday launched a £140 million fundraising campaign to improve standards across medicine, food science, cyber-security and the humanities. Medical research at Queen’s has seen cancer survival rates in the North move to the top of the UK league table.