University of Ulster is renowned for its courses and its welcoming ambience. Students who come from the South say they love the strong sense of community that the student body builds. Janet Stafford reports

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The University of Ulster (UU) is currently riding on the crest of a Quality Assurance wave. At the end of last year, UU was awarded two 5-star ratings in the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), the top mark for quality attainable in the UK's higher education colleges.

The two areas of excellence identified were biomedical sciences, which includes research into cancer, diabetes, nutrition and the ageing process, and in Irish and Celtic studies. In both instances, these 5-star awards were only made to three other universities in the whole of the UK.

The university scored a 5 in art and design, built environment and law, affirming these areas as particular strengths of the university. The high RAE marks means that UU can expect to receive a major boost to research funding.

In another coup for UU it received a ringing endorsement from the Quality Assurance Agency for higher education (QAA) for courses at all levels of its work. Dr Tony Barnhill is the student recruitment officer for the University of Ulster. "If you can imagine a schools inspection, but on the grand scale, it would inspect a whole university on that level, that is what the QAA assessment is," he says. "Everybody in the university - undergraduates, postgraduates, academic staff, administrative staff and all the processes and academic standards are thoroughly scrutinized."

The university will celebrate its 18th birthday this year, having been founded in 1984 with the merger of the New University of Ulster and the Ulster Polytechnic. There are four campuses: in York Street, Belfast; Jordanstown, Coleraine, and Magee, Derry, providing teaching for up to 22,000 students.

As UU comes of age it is reflecting with a real sense of achievement on the level of recognition it has received in the past year for its academic standards and its overall ethos of being a supportive learning environment. It is also looking to the future. The university vice-chancellor, Professor Gerry McKenna, voiced this view in response to the QAA endorsement saying, "It is our well-declared ambition to be a leading regional university with a national and international reputation for quality."

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Joe Passmore says: "There's no doubt we were delighted to have such great awards for the university last year. In areas such as psychology, biomedical sciences, optometry and business and management, for example, we are being recognised as providing excellent courses."

The quality of courses is a given it would seem, so what is it that discourages students, particularly from the Republic, from considering studying at UU?

"In recent years the whole fees issue probably led to a fall off in students travelling north to study," says Barnhill, "But that whole issue was handled quite badly. First off, no fees are applicable for health related courses such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, radiography and nursing. Courses where fees apply are means-tested and two-thirds of students from the Republic paid no fees at all last year. Students always ask about fees at the Higher Options conference and are amazed when I explain the facts to them."

With all the fuss about having to pay university fees in the North versus no fees in the Republic, the fact that 66 per cent of students from the Republic paid no fees at all last year and 15 per cent of the remainder paid partial fees needs to be highlighted. It pays to do your homework and see if fees apply, and also to consider that there are no special administration, registration or examination charges at UU.

"Some of our most popular courses are in the health-related courses," says Barnhill. "They are competitive at all institutions in the country but by applying here you have an extra chance that you may get the course of study you want. Our physiotherapy course is recognised both here and in Britain as one of the best."

One of the bugbears of going to college in recent years is finding suitable, affordable accommodation.

"There is basically a 99 per cent chance that if you want campus rooms in first year you'll get them," Barnhill says. There are very good on-campus halls of residence. There is also a scheme whereby private developers purpose-build quality accommodation near or on campus and lease it back to college to rent to students. It works amazingly well."

Accommodation cost range from about stg£30 to stg£40 per week, which, even with the conversion rate, compares favourably to rents in cities like Dublin or Galway.

Another important aspect of UU is the work placement opportunities in different courses such as science, engineering, computing and business. Arts and humanities students get the opportunity to spend a year studying in the US. "Work placement or a year studying abroad is of great interest to future employers. The students involved in work placement obtain a diploma in industrial studies as an extra qualification. For those studying in the US there's a diploma in area studies," says Barnhill.

One other area where students from the Republic may have felt at a disadvantage in the past is the equivalence of Leaving Cert results to points for admissions to certain courses. Barnhill says that this is an area that has been reviewed. "For some reason our equivalency ratings for Leaving Cert grades were higher than Queen's for a while, but we have reviewed them and I hesitate to say that we have lowered the Leaving Cert requirement, but we have re-evaluated the grades to a much more realistic standard."

At the end of the day, Barnhill, who is personally very helpful and approachable, says that they want to get across the message that UU values the mix of students from all over Ireland and warmly welcomes applicants from every corner of the island.

"We have a very good reputation for our courses and for being amenable and approachable. Students who come here from the South always say they love the strong sense of community that the student body builds here together," he says.

For more information on UU you can see the website at www.ulst.ac.uk