Queen’s Global Leadership Programme

Become a Change Maker

The Queen’s Global Leadership Programme offers 25 undergraduate students from across the University the chance to work on projects and develop skills that enable them to become change makers both at Queen's and in the wider community.

The project work, which takes place at Queen's, is enhanced by a short visit to an international location, in June 2026 we will visit Copenhagen in Denmark and Lund in Sweden!

Apply via MyFuture by 5pm on 27 October 2025

students sitting down in a board room in New York whilst visiting a company

Queen’s Global Leadership Programme

The aim of this programme is to enable students to develop leadership skills through working on a real-world problem. This will be enhanced through an international experience in Copenhagen and Lund.

Queen’s University 2030 Strategy sets out how it will embed the UN Sustainable Development Goals across the University. Therefore, our theme this year will be "How might students contribute to Queen's becoming a Net Zero University by 2040?" Students will work in teams and complete on-campus workshops to understand the challenges presented by the theme and create a proposal, which they will then pitch to a panel of experts.

The programme will include:

Recruitment of 25 students – any Undergraduate degree programme and any year. (Including integrated Masters degrees e.g. MSci or MEng)
15, 16 and 17 December 2025- on campus workshops- students will work in teams, understand the theme and learn the principles to address the challenge.
28 January 2025- Leadership & networking session.
Between January and March participants will be expected to work in teams to undertake research related to the project theme.
23 and 24 March 2025 on campus workshops– to draw out the learning from the research, ideate a solution and to discuss plans for the international trip.
April/ May-Group Social Evening (Peddle & Pints/ Soft drinks)
6-13 June 2026- trip to Copenhagen & Lund to meet with Queen's Partner universities and other professionals. Students will be primed to ask questions relating to the views of these professionals on the theme as it relates to their business/profession. The trip will include 8-10 visits and events in two cities, Copenhagen and Lund.

On return to Belfast (16 and 17 June) students will:

Work in their teams to hone their ideas into a pitch.
Pitch their ideas to a panel of experts.

Full attendance in person at all workshops and participation in all activities is compulsory. Failure to attend and participate, unless due to exceptional circumstances, will result in you being withdrawn from the programme.

students sitting at a table being creative in a workshop

Why Take Part?

By taking part in this programme you can expect to:

Work on a real problem
Gain a greater understanding of leadership and develop leadership skills including problem solving, communication, networking and interpersonal skills.
Gain an understanding of how to use Entrepreneurial Thinking to solve challenges.
Develop team working and project management skills through undertaking a project with other students.
Gain cultural awareness in an international environment.
Visit a number of international organisations and gain an insight into international work cultures and environments.
Network with students from Queen’s, alumni and other professionals in both Northern Ireland, Copenhagen and Lund
Be an ambassador for Queen’s.
Gain the Queen's Future-Ready Award.

Queen’s Global Leadership Programme 2023 Highlights

Back in semester 2 in 2023, Future-Ready Skills for Leaders: Go Global, now Queen’s Global Leadership Programme, kicked off in The Cube, One Elmwood for the 2022/2023 programme.

25 undergraduate students from across the University were selected for the 2023 programme. They came together to address the challenge:

“How might Queen's ensure our graduates are equipped to tackle 21st Century problems”?

The sessions included an introduction to “Design Thinking”, a very interesting panel event relating to the challenge and a range of activities to support the programme.

Workplace visits to Boston in 2023

Postcard from Boston! Last year our #QUBoston23 students embraced the Queen's University Belfast global alumni community with workplace visits in Boston to: Stratadice™ Rapid7 and Rian Immigrant Center before networking with alumni at the #futureleaders conference at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Harvard Business School and HealthBeacon organised by Laura Hamilton, President of Boston Irish Business Association. They also heard from Benjamin Stephens from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland about the new J1 5-year Visa for Research and STEM.

"This programme was truly a life-changing experience. I formed numerous connections and am now seriously considering working in New York in the future." Sarah Geraghty
Human Biology Student

Read our blog to find out more about Sarah's experience.

Queen’s Global Leadership Programme Highlights

Check out these images from our 2022-2023 Queen’s Global Leadership Programme highlights, where our students visited Boston.