Summer Study Success
St Andrews Summer Study gives international undergraduate students the opportunity to earn credits over the summer while studying at the University of St Andrews. For our first year running, we offered a Scottish History course, where the students learned about the country’s rich history via the physical environment, material objects and written texts to provide a sense of the events and themes which have formed Scotland’s history.
As part of the course, the students took part in field trips to the country’s most famous landmarks, giving them an unforgettable first-hand experience as every site told a special piece of Scottish history.
The trips included visits to Dunnottar Castle, Holyrood Palace, and the National Museum of Scotland, led by the academics, creating a more interesting learning environment for the students by engaging in a history lesson directly on-site.
The highlight of the trips were the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh and a Whisky Distillery in Glasgow.
At the Parliament, the students followed a detailed guided tour, discovering all the details of the architecture and its symbolism, as well as the history and behind-the-scenes of how the Scottish Parliament works. Everyone was amazed by the modern design of the building and the way each different component represents a part of Scotland.
The following week they visited the Clydeside Whisky Distillery. It was truly an insightful experience, as they learned all about Scotland’s first independent spirits business and its unique heritage. They got to see all the machines and understand the process of whisky making, from its ingredients to how it is distributed. And the best part? They were able to taste the whisky in the end, which really completed the circle and helped to understand what makes it so great.
The students rounded off their course with an academic trip to the Blackwatch Castle and Museum in Perth. They got to explore the history of Scotland’s oldest Highland regiment through historic objects such as uniforms, old photographs, medals, military equipment, paintings, even diaries from the earliest days of the regiment through to recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
As the Summer Study course slowly draws to an end, we hope all students had an amazing time experiencing all the beauties of Scotland and will come back home with enriched cultural baggage and more knowledge about another side of the world.