As thousands of new freshers arrive in the Granite City the University of Aberdeen can announce today (Monday 22 September) an estimated 9% increase in student numbers.
The University's student recruitment team is expecting admissions to be up by 200 compared to last year, spread across all disciplines.
Meanwhile, the National Student Survey findings on student satisfaction just released show that 91% of final year undergraduates at Aberdeen are satisfied with the quality of their degree course – an increase from last year's figure of 88%.
The University is one of only two Scottish universities to appear in the top 20 of the survey, which rates student opinion in areas including teaching, academic support and learning resources.
Cathy Macaslan, Vice Principal of Learning and Teaching at the University, expressed delight at the survey results, saying: "It's very heartening to see that student satisfaction has jumped still further to 91%, placing us just one and two percentage points behind Cambridge and Oxford universities respectively.
"The University is committed to ensuring students are offered the highest calibre of teaching, resources and support services. This ethos is further reflected in the world class academics we continue to attract to the University."
The continued investment in new courses, improvements to campus facilities alongside the generation of further scholarships opportunities are key components in the University's strategy to enhance the experience offered to students as Rachel Sandison, Head of Student Recruitment at the University explains:
"We believe there has never been a better and more exciting time to join the University of Aberdeen student community. We are offering new courses, and more help to ease financial pressures with new scholarships for science and engineering courses in our growing scholarship programme.
"This term's freshers can also look forward to the world class new sports facilities at Aberdeen Sports Village from next summer, and will also be the first to benefit from our futuristic new library, which, when it opens in autumn 2011 will offer students and the local community an iconic and inspirational learning environment which will not be matched anywhere in Scotland."