#We're dealing with 4 different sites here, #which despite the University's best efforts towards integration #are still stubbornly up to 80 miles apart #thinly spread across 3 of the 6 counties of Northern Ireland. #Failing divine intervention, they will remain geographically distinct #so that's the way to treat them. #The largest is the Jordanstown Site #on the hills above Belfast overlooking the Lough. #Over half the University's students attend courses here and it's expanding fast. #Over 2,000 part time students are based at Jordanstown, #a tradition first established when the site used to be a poly. #You might expect students to complain of isolation, #but the campus is well-connected and the site's good looks provide compensation. #Anyway, 80% of the students go home each weekend, #so there's no room for claustrophobia. #Belfast is only 7 miles away and this is where you find the next site. #With fewer than 700 Art and Design students, #it's the smallest site and in search of a social life, #students tend to latch on to Queen's University, about a mile down the road. #The University's HQ is, however, nearly 60 miles north, #as the crow with a compass flies, on the beautiful Antrim coast #near the Giant's Causeway. #The campus, surrounded by emerald countryside, #is on the edge of the small and quiet market town of Coleraine and #less than 5 miles from the lively coastal resorts of Portrush and Portstewart, #where most students live, leaving the campus dead after 6pm. #It is a peaceful place without being stifling. #Peaceful to the point of lethargy. #The Troubles of Northern Ireland are a world away and the greatest danger facing students in this isolated outpost #is being swept into the sea by the winds, rain and waves. #For the final site, Magee College, #we have to move a further 30 miles to the west to the old walled city of Derry. #It's an attractive campus, just north of town, but is home to only 800 students. #Each site is distinct and retains its own atmosphere and administration. #Indeed, all that Jordanstown and Coleraine seem to have in common are a beautiful isolated setting and #monstrously ugly modern concrete buildings. #Travel between sites is rarely needed, #but for those occasions when the gap has to be bridged a #video-conferencing facility is available linking 3 sites. #Across the University as a whole, #81% of students are from Northern Ireland and 13% from the Republic. #Only 4% come over the Irish Sea from the UK mainland. #This isn't the only way Ulster isn't like most UK universities. #For a long time, it's been offering vocational courses #for part-time and mature students #and Ulster ran modular courses long before most other universities had even thought of it. #The University also operates a two semester year, #rather than having 3 shorter terms. #The Students' Union has the potential to unite the sites a little, but doesn't. #As with most things, it operates separately on each site with some services on all of them. #What they do they do well and, consequently, #the Union is respected by both students and staff. #This may be because it is solely service-based and strictly non-political and so ruffles few feathers. #It's biggest attempt to unify is 'Quadrangle', #the ambitious newspaper covering all sites. #The Union runs most entertainments, such as, at Jordanstown, the bar, #which gets seriously over-crowded during the day, and the Assembly Hall which hosts discos once a week. #Coleraine also has a couple of bars, one of which is in the Riverside theatre, #which provides a fancy studio for treading the boards. #The smaller Disco bar stages a bops once a week and The Biko Hall, #also on campus, is large enough to attract fairly sizeable bands. #As for sport, although the University is okay when it comes to winning things, #the Union really excels when it comes to those who just want to play - #whatever the site. #At first glance the lack of University accommodation is potentially disastrous #with nearly 90% of students living out. #However, up to a third of students live at home and #the majority of first years can get University places if they want. #What accommodation there is, is in well-heated and comfortable halls and houses #spread across all the sites except Belfast. #The University also has it's own renting scheme.
