Types of events

What we Offer

Events at The Graduate School

At the Graduate School, we believe the world needs people who challenge orthodox thinking; debate accepted ideas and confront the status quo; people who see the world differently.

We recognise the extraordinary possibilities of thinking that is disruptive, divergent, challenging and unbounded.

Join us

Come and be inspired

Our events run the gamut from employability, enterprise and innovation workshops to professional and research skills training, as well as though-provoking talks from local and global leaders.

Some of the inspiring names to give talks at the Graduate School include Peter Worth, from Stanford University whose work is dedicated to helping school leaders hack their school cultures toward deeper learning; Mark Dowds a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur, who has founded companies in the USA and Canada, and legal eagle and TED speaker Dorcas Crawford.

Reach your full potential

Imagine the possibilities

Many of our events are left-field, designed to fire your imagination, stimulate your intellect and boost your confidence among your peers.

Human Bingo, for example, is designed to make it easy for you to meet your fellow postgraduate students, while Scholar Workshops allow you to engage with the work of major scholars from around the world.

Omani National Day

Cultural Celebration

Oman National Day is celebrated on the 18 November. The purpose of the Omani national Day event was to share the Omani heritage with different cultures, and to tell them what Oman is about. As a small Omani community in Belfast, this event provided an opportunity to celebrate with colleagues, friends, and staff at Queen's.

Organising such an event required proper planning, structuring, determination and initiative to lead. 

The event hosted around 250 attendees from various schools around the campus. Activities held during the day included talks, a photo exhibition and henna tattoos application. Guests were able to view catalogue and brochures collections. Attendees were also able to experience Omani costumes and music first hand.

Herstory

Research Culture

This postgaduate-led initiative provided the opportunity for female students to listen to female guest speakers who have established positions in their fields of work. The aim was for students to hear from a range of speakers across different disciplines and be inspired by their stories.

Among the speakers were Marie-Louise Muir, presenter off The Arts Show and expert on females in the arts in Northern Ireland. Also speaking was Grainia Long (Belfast City Council's Commissioner for Resilience) and Medbh McGuckian (Award Winning Poet).

The event also served the purpose of launching Herstory's QUB Women in the Arts Lean In Circle.

STEM Ambassador Training

Research Culture

This activity trained 51 undergraduates, post-graduates and staff to organise and run STEM events for school children, developing all 5 postgraduate pillars. Julia Carson, Programme Manager for the UK STEM Ambassador Hub along with her colleague, Conor McKenna ran the STEM Ambassador training course enabling both students and staff to receive free Enhanced Disclosure Checks and be fully trained in a very short space of time.

Mindful Meditation

Wellbeing Initiative

Mindful Meditation integrates mindful movement, relaxation and seated meditation.

The weekly classes led by Orla Wallace were held in the Wellbeing Room of the Main Site Tower building across lunch and were a collaborative effort between two doctoral students from the School of Psychology and Arts, English and Languages.

The classes enabled students the opportunity to de-stress from everyday life and helped them to remain calm and focus. They also provided a foundation for increasing reflectiveness, resiliency and self-awareness.

This initiative was open to all postgraduate students and was a drop-in, so there was no need to register.

PG Book Club

Research Culture

Reading groups are a great way for intellectual stimulation, expanding personal knowledge, but most importantly they are a social experience.

PG Book Club runs on the first and third Tuesday of every month in the Graduate School from 17.00-19.00. During these sessions participants have the chance to prompt their interests and propose readings to share with the rest of the group, allowing members to pick up books that they normally wouldn’t consider, discussing the most salient and interesting aspects.