The identical twins, aged 21, from Brackvede Park, Enniskillen, graduated together on Monday at Queen's University with degrees in Mathematics, showing that you can combine brains with beauty.

After leaving Erne Integrated College with A-Level's in Business Studies, IT and Maths, it was only natural that the sisters continue to study together at university.

Samantha, who is 30 seconds older than her twin, said: "We were both interested in the same thing and we have always done things together."

Laughing, Samantha admits that being identical twins and taking the same classes at university did lead to a few mix-ups: "Yes, I think they found it hard at first to tell us apart."

The girls moved out of the family home — which they shared with their mother, Carol, father, Wesley, brother Steven (14), sister Jade (16) and pet dog, Rocky — and moved into separate halls at university.

Samantha said: "We lived in separate halls in first year but we were still always together. Even though we slept in two different houses we basically lived at Stephanie's house most of the time."

Moving to Belfast together helped the twins settle in to university life and encouraged each other in their studies.

Would the girls have preferred to have done things separately? "No, I definitely wouldn't have wanted to have had this experience without Samantha, " said Stephanie. "I wouldn't change it, I wouldn't have wanted to do it separately."

Samantha added: "It was definitely easier because Stephanie was there, we didn't really think about going to different universities. I enjoyed having this experience together, we have always been very 'twinny'."

Naturally their parents were very proud of their achievement and held a graduation party for the duo with family and friends before the ceremony.

And now the twins will be separating for the first time ever at the end of the summer when Samantha heads back to Queen's to start a teacher training course, while Stephanie is kicking off her career as a financial engineer.

Samantha said: "We're splitting for the first time ever as I'm starting my PGCE and Stephanie is starting her new job."

Stephanie said: "I suppose it will be hard separating. We both wanted to be teachers and I went for the interview for the same course as Samantha and was accepted, but I changed my mind. I wanted to try something different. I think we will find being separated hard, it will be tough."