Northern Ireland is a fantastic choice for international students and for organisations seeking to develop education partnerships.
The UK has a global reputation for education, characterised by excellence and high quality. It is widely acknowledged that a UK education opens doors wherever you go in the world. According to the British Council, a UK education has been the preferred choice of some of the most successful people in the world, with one in four world leaders having studied in the UK.
Northern Ireland is part of the UK and its education system has historically outperformed the rest of the UK in GCSE and A-Level results (university entrance exams).
What we offer
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For overseas students
Northern Ireland offers a truly unique and high quality education. There is a range of English language teaching, boarding schools and university options. Students can come to learn English, enjoy a summer school or study abroad experience. Students can also study for GCSEs and A-Levels, which offer a route to our universities and progress to a full undergraduate or postgraduate programme of study.
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For overseas governments, ministries and education providers
Northern Ireland's universities and technical vocational education and training (TVET) colleges have extensive experience in transnational education. Our universities operate a number of branch campuses overseas, undertake high-quality joint research activity, and deliver jointly supervised PhDs. Our TVET colleges are active across the world and are working overseas to help develop curricula, enhance college leadership and management capability and deliver quality assurance processes.
Options for study
Universities
Two world-ranked universities - Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University – have around 45,000 students enrolled, with students from over 100 countries represented including China, Malaysia, India, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the US.
There is something for everyone, with both universities offering a broad range of courses across the arts, cyber security, humanities, social sciences, medicine, business, computing, film & journalism, health & life sciences, engineering and physical sciences.
Teacher Training Colleges
Northern Ireland’s teacher training colleges offer courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels for teacher education. In recent years, the colleges have expanded their undergraduate portfolio to offer a wider range of professionally-related academic programmes. Both colleges have relationships with a wide range of partner institutions globally.
Technical Vocational Education and Training
Northern Ireland has an extensive Technical Vocational Education and Training sector. There are over 40 campuses across the region that develop a comprehensive portfolio of academic and vocational courses. These include A-Levels, foundation degrees, apprenticeships and higher level apprenticeships.
Northern Ireland colleges are active across the world, working with partner organisations to deliver transnational education programmes. These include teacher training, curricula development, quality assurance, leadership development and project based learning. Colleges NI can also deliver a range of bespoke programmes, such as short courses and summer school programmes.
Boarding Schools
Northern Ireland offers an excellent choice of boarding schools, each with its own unique heritage and all sharing a rich history of academic and extra-curricular excellence. Whether single-gender or co-ed, city centre or rural, each school nurtures the individual within a supportive and welcoming community environment.
Our boarding schools provide an excellent and affordable launchpad for further study at our universities.
English Language Teaching
Northern Ireland is home to seven British Council accredited English language schools. The language schools offer a range of flexible courses for professional or everyday use.
The schools provide a variety of off-the-shelf to bespoke vocational English language courses. There are strong links with business and local communities, enabling students to continue their immersion in the English language through work placements or home stays with approved local families.
