University of Stirling — Attraction in Great Britain

PhD Candidates and international students: don't do it.

I spent 6.5 long years at this university, from my undergraduate to a PhD.

My contact time was 1 hour per month. When I requested more frequent meetings, I was informed I was not a priority as my minimum contact time requirements (as per contract) were being met.

Every time it showed promise of improving, it ended up being a glitzy advertisement tactic until one day I realised I was in an abusive relationship with an institution.

In-fighting, next to no communication between departments, extremely anti-other universities sentiment, and the services provided are only functional on a surface level. Facilities are in uncomfortable states of disrepair while money is poured into a £22 million gym and £9 million International Student Building.

During a large meeting for PhD funding schemes, a lead figure in the Arts & Humanities pressured a supervisor to push their joint PhD student into dropping out of their lead institution (St Andrews) to list ours as the lead institution, claiming we had better facilities.

That was a rich statement. Teaching facilities and expert training availability are falsely advertised on a number of courses. The advertised Conference Translation equipment and rooms were never used or made available to MSc Translation Studies students, even though it's the main selling point of the course.

Staff are overworked and stretched unspeakably thin. Before I quit, all teaching assistants positions were indefinitely suspended, leaving professors to handle hundreds of students on their own, making the teaching staff to student ratio 1 to 200. PhD students hoping for teaching experience or professional development are more or less given false promises and taken advantage of.

International students are lured with promises of fantastic master's degrees only to find themselves being taught by staff who have no experience or training to teach in International English. I spent months running a volunteer support group for international students, doing the work of a teaching assistant as I was deeply ashamed by what I was witnessing.

Ableist policies, next to no mental health or disability awareness among staff beyond the reassuring standard copy-paste email sent to all self-reporting disabled students, and bureaucratic deadlock any time you may venture outside of the limited standard queries administration is equipped to deal with.

I won't even begin talking about how the University lured international students on campus during the COVID crisis to fill empty accommodation by giving vague suggestions that teaching will resume on campus any minute now.

I lost a lot of time and money here hoping to finally be given the promised opportunity to develop...

Very weak program in strategic communication and PR. The knowledge was very narrow and concentrated on few fields. One professor was very interested in political PR thus all lectures used those examples. But I would like to get examples from different fields. Tutor was not able provide a support and valuable feedback during my work on searching topic for the dissertation. All provided feedback was not helpful and not clear. I would say tutor confused me even more than before my visit. I was also disappointed when our professor promised us to answer any question regarding the dissertation when we will be in Barcelona but in the end i received a respond to ask my supervisor. I dont understand why they promise to help and in the end were so unhelpful. In general provided information was very theoretical for those who wants to work in PR. I was working for 2 years before this program and never met the situation when i could use all those theories. Those knowledge good to those who wants to do academic discussion and teach in the university. I believe that PR is more practical and should be studied in action. Media relations discipline provided old data and teach us very basic things such as how to do Facebook or Twitter post. Those lectures were the most useless. University has beautiful campus. However i was not able to enjoy it fully coz I was living quite far from this place in moldy dormitory. I paid 2000 pounds for cold, dark room where you even dont have normal stream of hot water. I had few times a situation when hot water just disappeared in the middle of taking shower when you whole covered with a soap. Disability service works badly. I sent them request in August before arriving. They answered on my request only in December when i already finished my semester and move to another country. IT department works bad as well. I had some issues with my Lynda access. They were not able to fix it and always responded me differently. Thus i had an impression that they dont communicate with each other at all. In general communication between departments are very weak. For example, before arriving I was trying to get information if my sponsor paid my tuition fee. University told me they paid. Than next day another person told me they not. So I was able to get right information only one week after my arriving on the campus. In general the semester in Stirling was very very stressful and unhealthy. I regret that i spent money for studying there. It does not worthy at all. Worst 6 month in my life. No support during my study, no...

Not sure what I'm reviewing here. Grounds/ education/ atmosphere?

Day Visit

If you're looking for an escape in nature for a few minutes/hours, you can't go far wrong with the campus.

Airthrey Castle (on campus) is lovely (still used by the uni so you might be able to get access to the cafe (if it still runs).

Outside of Covid lockdown the MacRobert centre is a fantastic venue for both live performances and cinema (boxoffice and indie), and caters well to children too.

Study

If you're considering becoming a student at Stirling University then I can't rate the place highly enough.

I studied Philosophy as an undergraduate and continued on to an MLitt. The department was welcoming, intellectually challenging, varied, and energetic. This was back in the mid 2000s but I have to assume that a similar energy and dynamic must still in place as many of the same faces are still there.

The University campus experience was also brilliant. I met lifelong friends here, I met my wife across the hall in Geddes Court (a building not there any more but we all still remember 'the Geddo' fondly).

There's a shop, eateries, exceptional sports facilities, and a couple of good pubs all on campus. It's like living in a village of students. It's a student experience that I think would be hard to beat.

Stirling Court Hotel

My wife and I even got married on campus at the Stirling Court Hotel (at the time called 'Stirling Management Centre').

We and our guests had an exceptional stay, great food, the staff were absolutely on the ball (and highly accommodating of our oddities, like a bouncy castle for guests). Not to mention the stunning location for wedding pictures.

Sorry for the long review but Stirling University deserves...