What is the venue US President Joe Biden will visit in Belfast during his journey to Ireland?

​Vice-chancellor Paul Bartholomew, an Englishman who took over the reins of the university in 2016, said it was a real “coup” for not just his institution but the Province as a whole.

Mr Biden jets in to Northern Ireland on Tuesday, and is expected to give an address in the university’s newly-built (and much-delayed) Belfast campus the next day.

The university – which has historically had its main sites in Coleraine and Jordanstown, as well as a presence in Londonderry and Belfast city centre – embarked several years ago on a plan to centralise operations in Northern Ireland's capital.

It started knocking down much of its old campus at the north end of the city centre (known widely as “the art college”) in 2014 and put up a series of angular, jutting glass-and-steel buildings surrounded by huge student accommodation blocks.

Meant to cost £250m and be done by 2018, it was not finished until 2022 and ended up costing over £360m.

Prof Bartholomew had already described the Belfast campus as something which “truly reflects the hope and promise of the [Good Friday] Agreement and our aspirations for a positive, prosperous, and sustainable future for everyone”.

Speaking to Radio Ulster on Monday, the professor said of the pending visit: “I think the excitement is absolutely palpable.

"It's a big moment for the university, but it's also a big moment for NI in terms of the way in which it reflects on the past, but I think more importantly what's going to happen next.

"I think the visit is a stimulus for those political conversations, of course, but it's something to elaborate on in terms of what we've achieved in Belfast city centre there, and how that contrasts with what happened during the Troubles.”

Asked by the BBC host whether the scale of the task has “blown your mind”, the professor replied: “Certainly in terms of the preparation here.

"I've been saying to people this is in a different league. But in truth it feels like a different kind of sport altogether.”

The university would normally be shut over Easter week, but “the staff have certainly pulled out all the stops,” he said.