University of St Andrews

St Andrews is a small medieval city in Fife on the east coast of Scotland, fifty miles north of Edinburgh. Famous for its championship golf courses at the St Andrews Links, the city is also well known as the home of the University of St Andrews, a highly-regarded academic institution with a reputation for excellence in the UK and worldwide. The city itself has an extensive and colourful history, which acts as inspiration for many of the University's traditions, such as the May Dip and the bright red student gowns.

Students living in St Andrews enjoy all of the benefits of city life, including shops, restaurants and leisure activities, whilst the city remains small enough for new students to easily find their way around. The city is known for its beautiful architecture, rivalled perhaps only by Edinburgh, and is surrounded by some of Scotland's finest scenery, including its sea coast.

The city of St Andrews is relatively small; the entire population is only around seventeen thousand strong, roughly seven thousand of whom are students of the university. The university enjoys a more rural location than most city universities, giving students the impression of living in a close-knit community whilst living in a city. Instead of spending evenings in nightclubs (students tend to travel to Dundee for nights out), students enjoy the quieter pub and café culture of the area. It is said that St Andrews has more pubs per square mile than anywhere else in Britain!

However, the university offers a vast range of social activities to keep students away from the bar; sport, theatre and dance are all popular with students, and there are a number of alternative clubs and societies run by students to share other hobbies and interests. Students appear to thrive on the wide range of activities available, reflected by the consistently high student satisfaction survey results that the university registers each year, and a drop-out rate lower than any other Scottish university.

St Andrews also regularly achieves a high rating for teaching in many subject areas, while the classics and economics departments in particular enjoy high praise and graduate success. These positive results have all contributed to St Andrews winning the Sunday Times' prize for the Scottish university of the year 2008-2009, beating rivals such as the universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

As well as H.R.H Prince William, other famous alumni of the university include the actor John Cleese, Olympic cyclist Chris Hoy, and the author Rudyard Kipling. Whilst the university has become even more famous in recent years as the home of Prince William during his studies, it is also famous as a university of 'firsts'. It was the very first university in Scotland, founded in 1413, and is therefore one of the oldest universities in the UK, and worldwide. It was also the first university in the UK to enrol female students, and even the first to have a students' union.


For more information on the University of St Andrews, see:

• Accommodation
• Student Information