Community of Giving
Every year, our global St Andrews community helps the University to meet its evolving needs by the power of collective giving. Through gifts to the Areas of Greatest Need and the 600th Anniversary Endowment, donors provide a flexibility that allows the University to strike a balance between responding to unexpected challenges and facilitating strategic priorities.
For St Andrews, this means providing our students and staff with access to support and unparalleled resources that allow them to excel, and respecting our history while placing the University at the forefront of innovation and change.
We are incredibly grateful to the donors who have given to the Areas of Greatest Need and 600th Anniversary Endowment for enabling us to direct over £500,000 to support the following initiatives in 2024:
Creating homes for tomorrow’s leaders to solve the world’s most pressing challenges
‘New College’ and the Digital Nexus Building are ambitious capital projects within our recently-launched £300 million fundraising campaign, Making Waves, which will create cross-disciplinary environments to inspire innovative thinking and transformative ideas.
Situated in the heart of St Andrews, ‘New College’ will bring together the School of International Relations and the University of St Andrews Business School to form a major social sciences hub that addresses global challenges through holistic solutions. The ‘New College’ will also preserve a much-loved St Andrews building – the former Madras College secondary school – through a careful redevelopment of the site which will protect and restore its historic features. The project is currently in its final year of planning, with construction due to start in 2026.
The Digital Nexus Building will revitalise the Science and Medicine Campus on the North Haugh by creating a landmark home for the School of Computer Science. There, researchers will explore and solve critical issues facing society, including dementia, visual impairment, and climate change. The building will enable the University to integrate talented researchers with established teaching and research colleagues to create an intellectual powerhouse that will change lives for the better.
Helping talented students overcome barriers to attending the University of St Andrews
Higher education in the UK is currently facing three major challenges – declining public investment, barriers to international recruitment, and the increase in the cost of living.
At St Andrews, the impact of these challenges is particularly felt in our taught postgraduate student numbers, which are in decline. The University was able to bolster recruitment of taught postgraduates in 2024 by offering scholarships to applicants, ensuring that St Andrews can continue to attract the brightest and best minds, while also providing these students with a vital pathway to PhD study.
Enabling students to gain vital experience to improve their career prospects
Alongside strong academic performance, employers are increasingly looking for new graduates who have gained vital real-world skills through work experience, internships or voluntary work. Taking up these opportunities can come with a financial cost. Students may have to reduce their hours in paid employment, cover travel expenses or childcare costs, or purchase professional clothing.
The University helps to mitigate these costs by providing employability awards of up to £2,000 for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Priority is given to those who typically struggle to access opportunities to enhance their employment prospects, including care-experienced or estranged students and those who have participated in widening participation programmes.
Preserving our shared heritage for the benefit of all
The University Collections contain rare books, manuscripts, muniments, photographs, artworks, and objects accumulated over more than 600 years. The holdings within the Collections provide rich teaching and research opportunities for both the University community and for scholars from across the world, while also acting as an important public resource centre.
In 2024 the University acquired an early 16th century handwritten manuscript – now known as the St Andrews Chronicles – which sheds new light on the First War of Scottish Independence and William Wallace’s 1297 uprising. The manuscript is a rare surviving example of pre-1550 decorated Scottish binding, retaining its original wood and leather.
Despite being one of the most important histories of Scotland, it has been viewed by very few people, having been held in private collections for the entirety of its 500-year existence. The University was delighted to secure it for the nation and has worked to ensure democratic access by fully digitising the piece to allow the wider population to learn from this important historical record. It will also go on public display at the University’s Wardlaw Museum in 2025.