Stirling University will provide free accommodation and transport to prospective students and their families who are visiting Open Days from England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
While the university has offered free campus accommodation in the past, the upcoming Open Day on June 17 will see the first time that transport is also provided.
Neither the offer of free transport nor free accommodation is extended to visitors from Scotland or from the rest of the EU.
The transport comes in the form of buses, which will leave from four cities across the north of England on Friday June 16 before returning after the Open Day the following day.
The four cities are Darlington, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Carlisle and Preston. More precise departure locations can be found on the university’s Open Day website here, where visitors are also able to pre-register for their chosen package.
Stirling’s newest campus accommodation, Juniper Court, will be hosting the visitors who choose the free accommodation package. They will be able to choose to book either one or two of the residence’s 243 bedrooms, with each room holding a maximum of two people.
The website also offers the option of extending the stay at Juniper Court beyond the one free night, for a “special price” of £25 per night for single occupancy, and £50 for double occupancy. Current student residents of Juniper Court pay £145 per week, or just over £20 per day.
In addition to the overnight accommodation, the website states that guests will “also benefit from access to our on-campus 50m swimming pool and world-class fitness gym.”
Explaining the decision to extend this offer only to visitors from UK students outside of Scotland, a university spokesman said: “Places for Scottish and EU-domiciled students are fully-funded but are strictly capped in number by the Scottish Government; the places allocated to the University of Stirling for these students are filled every year.
“Free tuition fees and a cap on places does not apply to students from the rest of the UK wishing to study in Scotland.”
Asked how the university is able to ensure that only visitors from England, Wales, and Northern Ireland can take advantage of the offer, the spokesman said: “Visitors are asked to give their home address when booking accommodation. We haven’t experienced any issues with this in previous years.”
The university’s next Open Day will take place on Saturday June 17, from 9am to 4pm. Two more will follow after the summer: one on September 17, and another on October 28.
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