✨A Real Day at Uni – Student POV
What is a day at St Andrews uni is like?
An average day at uni will look different for everyone, depending on what subject you do, what your sleep schedule looks like, your hobbies, and a million other factors. But current students at St Andrews have a few things in common.
Nick*, a third year Chemistry student, said “I usually wake up quite late. So, I might wake up at like, 11, and then I’ve gotta be in labs at 12”. He went on to say “lunch is usually just me and my lecture recordings. It never feels lonely though”. It’s not uncommon to spend lunch studying, hunched over a Tesco meal deal. Lectures are often recorded so that if you miss one or would like to use it to revise, you can access it. Nick is a big fan of this.
Paul, a Biology student, usually has tall plans to get up early but finds himself too sleepy to follow through with them. “I get up at about quarter past seven, half seven usually, um, on the days that I get up. Sometimes I just sleep in and that’s that”. After his lectures for the day, he heads to the library. “I usually go to the basement to, like, find people that I know and talk with them” but “if I’ve got serious work to get done I go to the silent floor”. As a basement-studier myself, even during busy periods, I respect the need for complete silence but can’t say I relate.
A photo Paul kindly let me take of him with a book in the Library basement. This is one of my favourite spots!
The makeup of classes for sub-honours (for most degrees in Scotland, this is first and second year) science modules are, generally, a bit different for humanities students. Mike, a recently graduated History student, explained how many of the modules for subhonours humanities work.
“So first and second year, most days of the week I had some lectures, you know. I don’t think I ever had more than three in a day. So, three hour-long lectures in a day. For every module you’d have a weekly tutorial, and it’d normally be three modules a semester. And everything around that is sort of reading and doing coursework”.
In my experience, Comparative Literature, English, and Philosophy modules usually run on the same three-lectures-a-week-and-one-tutorial format.
A tutorial room, in the Buchanan Building. I had a lot of tutorials and lectures in this building in first year.
Everyone has a different preference for study spaces. The most eccentric favourite spot of everyone I chatted to belongs to Darren, an International Relations student, who likes a wee spot by Andrew Melville Hall. “There is a collection of beehives, out just off the main road on the way out from Melville to University Hall, that is lovely. I just go out and sit out there. I have a fold-out chair that I take with me”.
The library is a bit more traditional, but there are still plenty of different places to park your laptop in St Andrews. Dina, a Mathematics and Philosophy student, found that the library wasn’t for her, after giving it a good try in first year. Instead, she says “the Gateway building feels more chill, and like spaced out. And the top floor as well – I feel like nobody goes to the top floor, there’s like these cute little tables”.
The entrance to the Gateway building.
In the evenings, most people I’ve spoken to tend to study, unless they’re doing something else. Nick says “I usually have like some kind of extracurricular most evenings. So I’ve got music fund, Signpost, and then the bands I’m in, and then on Thursday evening I’ve got a church group I go to as well”. There are always things to do, so the hassle is usually finding the time, rather than the opportunity, to go out.
Dina was a commuter student in second year, renting a flat in Cupar rather than living in St Andrews like the majority of students here do. After the day is done she normally “hops back on the bus” to Cupar, but she also stays in town some evenings for activities. She attends the same church group as Nick, and also stays in St Andrews for Jazz Nights and film nights with friends. Unlike what I thought she would say, Dina wouldn’t even describe commuting as annoying. She “loved commuting, and it’s really nice to have a work-life separation”. There are buses that allow her to stay out fairly late for nights-out too, and if not, there’s usually a friend that’s happy to let her stay over for the night.
On the bus!
So, students here have mixed opinions and mixed days. But consistent across everyone is a lot of study, and avoiding buying lunches in town. As Mike puts it, “that can get quite expensive in St Andrews”. I think I’m alone in my bad habit of buying paninis from Rector’s café nearly every day.
*All names have been anonymised! Any third year chemistry students named Nick are completely coincidental.
Information and links
- The Main Library has four floors. On the ground floor and the basement you can chat to friends and bring food and drink with you, but the other floors are silent, lunch-less zones. Main Library – Library – University of St Andrews
- Andrew Melville Hall (aka Melville) is one of the halls of accommodation. It’s close to University Hall (aka uni Hall) and Agnes Blackadder Hall (aka ABH). Andrew Melville Hall – Accommodation – University of St Andrews
- The Gateway (aka The Gateway Building) is the location of the School of Management, but it also has some study spaces and other facilities. Gateway building – School of Management – University of St Andrews
- Jazz Night is a weekly event run by The Students’ Association (aka the Union) every Thursday night, performed by the student society JazzWorks. Jazz Night
- In Scotland, people under 22 have access to free bus travel, which makes commuting to nearby places like Cupar less of a hassle. There is a bus station in town, and the university offers facilities and support to commuter students. Keep these things in mind if you consider accommodation outside of St Andrews!
- Rector’s Café (aka Rectors) is a café in town ran by the Union, which happens to be one of my favourite study spots. Cafés