The first students in the new agricultural sciences degree at Queen’s University Belfast began their studies this week.

The new offering from Queen’s effectively replaces the agricultural technology programme delivered in partnership with CAFRE Greenmount.

The final intake for this degree was September 2025 and it involved two years of teaching at Greenmount, with the final year at Queen’s.

The new agricultural sciences programme is different in that it is being delivered exclusively by Queen’s from the School of Biological Sciences building in Belfast.

The building is a relatively new addition, opening in 2019 and representing a £40m investment for the university.

Professor Nigel Scollan, who is head of the school, said the building contains “state of the art teaching, research and laboratory facilities” as well as “world leading researchers”.

He pointed to the latest rankings, which place Queen’s number one across the UK for research in agriculture, food and veterinary sciences.

“We are research intense with a massive education agenda,” Scollan told the Irish Farmers Journal.

Research led

Co-director of the new agricultural sciences degree, Dr Alison Calvert, said teaching will be “research-led” with lectures mainly delivered by scientists from within Queen’s.

“It is so important that the students have exposure to the most cutting-edge research and that it is brought into their studies on a daily basis,” she said.

Within the school there are nine different undergraduate courses, ranging from agricultural sciences, to environmental management and zoology.

There is overlap across the various degree programmes, as students on different courses will study some of the same modules.

For example, the agriculture students will study six modules in their first year, but only two are solely for the agricultural sciences degree.

Other modules, such as environmental sciences and microbiology, are also part of other degree programmes, so some classes will have over 200 students in the room.

Whilst there are only nine students in the first year of the agricultural sciences programme, staff at Queen’s are hopeful enrolments will increase as the degree becomes established.

Entry requirement for the degree is three Bs at A-level, with one being biology.

Interestingly, the first cohort of agricultural science students includes some students from non-farming backgrounds.

“We have quite a few female students too, so it is encouraging to see more women wanting to study and pursue careers in agriculture,” said Dr Arthy Surendran.

Similar to the agricultural technology degree, the new agricultural sciences programme gives students the option of a 40-week work placement after their second year.

Dr Alison Calvert said that across all biological science degrees, the vast majority of students opt to take the extra work placement year either locally or internationally.

The previous agricultural technology programme also included hands-on enterprise modules on CAFRE’s farms. Whilst that element is missing from the new degree, Calvert said students will still be visiting farms and will be involved with “programme partners” such as the Agri Food and Biosciences Institute and AgriSearch.

“We don’t have a farm here because we are in Belfast, but our programme is designed so that our students will be out on farms at every possible opportunity.

“Field work has always been a big part of what we do in biological sciences,” Calvert said.

She added that students on the agricultural sciences degree will still be able to work on farms as part of their work placement year.

Programme co-director Dr Paul Williams said the agriculture offering at Queen’s was reviewed to make the course more closely aligned with existing biological science degrees.

“When students exit from the programme, we want the agricultural scientist to be no different from a marine biologist or a biochemist in terms of quality.

“We want to raise the bar in terms of employers’ perception of the scientific quality of an agricultural science student,” he said. With most agriculture students coming from farming backgrounds, Williams makes the point that a strong knowledge of practical agriculture is already “ingrained” in many students.

“What is the add on that we can provide with the degree? That is the question that we thought long and hard about,” he said.

As well as internal discussions, employers from the agri food industry and past students also gave input.