Experiences of Stirling?

[SockFluffInTheBath]

DD is looking for French and Stirling is on the radar. We have family round Edinburgh but never been to Stirling. Any opinions, tips or experiences please?

I was there 2001-2005 so it's probably changed a bit but I loved it. Very happy there. Great lecturers and facilities. Lovely atmosphere.

Beautiful campus, excellent sports facilities and good student support 😊

Friend of DS2's is there and she likes it so much she is planning to stay in the area when she graduates. (We are not in Scotland for reference). DS played a match there a couple of years ago and said it was a lovely campus. Great sporting facilities (friend is also sporty) - it punches above its weight at BUCS athletics FWIW.

Niece loved it there (graduated 2022) and has gone back to do a part time masters this year. Nice campus and relatively cheap accommodation in town for later years.

My DD was impressed by the PE students at the open day (if your DD wants to choose her uni based on fit boys/girls).

@SandyIrving it’s as good a reason as any 😅

Thank you everyone

It's a nice campus, but because there are so many students from central belt it tends to empty at the weekends. Lots of 3rd and 4th year's commute. My daughter is in 4th year and is commuting for her 1 taught class a week.

its a beautiful campus and has quite good ratings but some courses have much less spaces than the more well known Scottish Universities, so you may want to check with admissions and compare with other universities and work out your DCs chances from there.

DS is has just started his second year at Stirling and he is really enjoying it.

Lovely area, nice City with a fair few pubs and whatever, easy to travel to Glasgow and Edinburgh - and actually pretty much anywhere in scotland as the train system seems much better than England. And students can get a Young Scot card which gives them free bus travel all over Scotland.

The campus is beautiful and the halls he was in for his first year were very nice, but as mentioned above, a lot of Scottish students tend to go home a weekends so it was pretty quiet I think. And a bit lonely (we live in Southern England so way too far/expensive to come back often).

This year he is in a flat in the middle of Stirling with 3 others and is really settled now and happy.

You don't indicate how far away you live but if it's a distance then having family in Edinburgh is really reassuring imo. DH has family near Glasgow and it's great to know that family is close by in an emergency.

Can't comment on the standard of teaching as DS tells us nothing!!! But again he seems content and is working hard (I think).

Talking of working - one issue is there aren't too many part time jobs for students as you might find in a large city - which might be a consideration for some.

I suspect it's possibly a tamer student experience compared to some - but it seems to suit DS. Plenty of partying seems to be done even so. And for us Mums' it has the benefit of being a very safe University and City.

Hope this helps 😊

As a French graduate (MA, PhD), I just had a look at the course offerings for French. They have a really impressive "Languages for Employability" compulsory module, aimed at being competitive in the job market of the target language. Wish I'd had that in my degree. They also have rather a nice selection of partner universities in France and Switzerland, if your DD doesn't want to do the English language assistante in a French school option for her year abroad.

Thanks everyone.

@mrsdolittle we're in a village in the Midlands, and she’s looking for somewhere relatively tame. The thought of somewhere like Manchester puts her right off!

@SoilTiller thank you, that’s really helpful!

I was there at the Macrobert Art Centre for an event recently on a Sunday afternoon and it was pretty busy generally