Meet our students
Students from the International Study Centre talk about their experiences at the University of Stirling. Find out about life on campus, their choice of courses and plans for the future:
Pok Ho
There are excellent sports facilities here; there is a gym, good football and tennis courts and even a golf course - though I've never played before.
Stirling is a beautiful town, actually quite old - a traditional Scottish town with castles, dungeons and forests. I find it quite comfortable living here; it’s easy to access, a simple life, and the best for study.
I’m very happy to be studying with a group of international students; many come from China and others come from Russia, South America, Japan and Africa. I also met some British-born Chinese here - it's good to share dinners together; there is a lot of excellent Chinese cuisine here in the middle of Scotland!
Edinburgh is also a beautiful town. There is a lot of choice of things you can visit, you can go to Princes Street for shopping and go to the castle. There are also a lot of good museums in Edinburgh."
Maricarmen Domador Pineda
I’m doing a Business and Arts Undergraduate Certificate and so far it been great. We are doing the same things as the first year but we get better at English and the other skills that we need for going to a proper University. It’s basically great. And the teachers are so good!
We have everything around, five minutes from your house, so you don’t have to get up early! All the facilities are here, like the supermarket and other shops. Living in a campus is really really good.
In halls we’re all in the same situation – so it’s easy to meet people. You get to know people who live with you and the next year you can choose to live in a flat together. It’s great because you live with friends that you really like. It’s really really easy to make friends, in halls or in class. You can meet people everywhere and it’s full of people with the same age as you.
The subjects are really good and our teachers make sure that we understand what they say. I like that we actually get to learn what we need. And you improve your English as well. You keep learning English and at the same time you learn what you need for your degree.
I choose Stirling because of the facilities and because there are great landscapes, a really really beautiful Uni. It’s a mix of everything. I really like Scotland and I really like the historic city and other stuff. It a great choice!"
Vasiliy Yanchenko
'I decided which subjects I wanted to have in my University course. I wanted to study Finance, Business and Economics. I study all these in the Undergraduate Certificate.
I have chosen this University because the programme is very interesting and after foundation course you go directly to the second year of University.
The second reason why I’m here is because in Russia there are a lot of students who having completed a degree but don’t have work because there are too many people who have the same degree.
This place is very beautiful. I like it. And the atmosphere is good for studying. There are no big cities around the campus, so you can concentrate on studying.
Stirling is a beautiful city; a very old city with architecture, beautiful churches, castles. I like it very much."
