Dundee describes itself as “Scotland’s most enterprising university” and, while there would be other claimants to that title, it has certainly been among the liveliest in recent years.

A long series of good quality ratings and the acquisition of education, nursing and art colleges, which doubled its size and greatly increased its scope, have been complemented by highprofile research successes, especially in medicine and the life sciences.

The message appears to be getting through to prospective students: applications shot up by 88 per cent in five years, although they were down by more than the Scottish and UK averages at the start of 2008.

The university now has more than 18,000 students, including a healthy number from overseas, and is looking outwards to achieve the “critical mass” which experts regard as essential to break into the higher education elite.

Development

Dundee has been appointing professors at the rate of one a month for the last four years and has embarked on a £200-million campus redevelopment designed by the leading architect, Sir Terry Farrell.

Almost £40 million of this is being spent on wirelessnetworked student residences. Best-known for the life sciences, where research into cancer and diabetes is recognised as world-class, the university has already opened new buildings for interdisciplinary research, applied computing and clinical research.

The main library is being extended and the Faculty of Education and Social Work acquired new premises in 2007. Set in 20 acres of parkland, the medical school is the one of the few components of the university outside the compact citycentre campus – some of the nursing and midwifery students are 35 miles away in Kirkcaldy, while education and social work are waiting to move from the former Northern College campus, two miles outside the centre.

Strengths

Biochemistry is the flagship department, housed in the £13-million Wellcome Trust Building. Its academics were the first in Britain to be invited to take part in Japan’s Human Frontier science programme and are now the mostquoted researchers in their field. Medicine and the biological sciences won Dundee’s other 5* research ratings, while six more subjects were on the next rung of the research assessment ladder, leaving half of the university’s researchers in departments rated in the top two categories.

The latest Scottish university to join the National Student Survey, Dundee makes its debut in the top 20, with high levels of satisfaction in history and archaeology, English, politics and computer science.

Teaching ratings were almost uniformly impressive, with only philosophy judged less than Highly Satisfactory. Vocational degrees predominate, helping to produce the university’s consistently good graduate employment record. The university sends more graduates into the professions than any other institution in Scotland and only Oxbridge graduates came out ahead of Dundee’s in a national survey of starting salaries.

All degrees include a career planning module and an internship option, and students are now provided with their own personal development website. Among the new courses introduced recently are forensic anthropology, sports biomedicine and innovative product design.

Access

The highly-rated design courses are taught at the former Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art. There has been an emphasis on opportunities for women ever since Dundee’s separation from St Andrews University in 1967, and the addition of teacher training has increased the female majority.

Two thirds of Dundee’s students are from Scotland and nearly one in ten from Northern Ireland. One in five come from areas with little tradition of higher education and more than a quarter are from working-class homes. They enjoy a welcoming atmosphere and a cost of living which is lower than in most university cities. Private accommodation is plentiful for those who are not housed by the university. New students even have their own website.

The city is profiting from recent regeneration programmes and becoming more fashionable. Spectacular mountain and coastal scenery are close at hand, but social life tends to be concentrated on the students’ union, which is one of the largest and most active in Scotland.

Times recommends

• Degree classifications not fit for purpose says watchdog
• Five essential tips for your year abroad
• Are students killing television?