The University’s annual Future Stars Awards sponsored by Mckeever Sports is an opportunity for Queen’s to recognise the most talented year 11/12 student athletes across each of the University’s 5 priority sports.  

On 15 April 2025 the students and their parents attended a special gala event in Queen’s Whitla Hall for a celebration of school sport, and to get an insight into the University’s Academy Programmes,  a comprehensive support package that allows students to pursue sport and academia as dual careers at Queen’s. MC for the evening was BBC's Thomas Niblock.

The Queen’s Sports Development Team work closely with Ulster Hockey, Ulster Rugby, Ulster GAA, NI Schools Football Association and Rowing Ireland to build programmes of activity that gave nearly 1,000 year 11 and 12 sports stars across Ulster the opportunity to catch the eye of Queen’s Sport coaches and staff. This resulted in 148 Queen’s Future Stars awards being presented.

Professor Judy Williams, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Students at Queen’s, said: "I would like to congratulate all our McKeever Sports Future Stars award winners along with those parents, guardians, teachers and coaches who helped them along this journey. It is a tremendous achievement to be recognised in this way.

Our Sports Development and Coaching staff over a number of months across Hockey, GAA, Rugby, Soccer and Rowing in partnership with our local schools and governing bodies reached out to over one thousand Year 12 Participants and reaching out to nearly 400 teams within hundreds of second level Schools across Ulster. This resulted in 146 Queen’s Future Stars awards this year - all exceptional young people".

Watch what it means to our students who are on an Academy Programme...