The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an Independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is Queens University, the institution pioneered Belfast's first programme of collegiate education. Locally referred to as Inst, the modern school educates boys from ages 11 to 18. It is one of the eight Northern Irish schools represented on the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school occupies an 18-acre site in the centre of the city on which its first buildings were erected.