Paisley Power: Asking Students about the University of the West of Scotland

The University of the West of Scotland isn’t a huge international crowd-pleaser. But why? What is the University of the West of Scotland like? After talking to current and former students and crunching the numbers, this international sleeper-hit hosts a lot more students than locals think it does. In fact, while many in Scotland look to other academic power-hitters for their degrees, international students have found plenty to love about this multi-campus, multinational institution.

What’s the easy answer: The University of the West of Scotland is a growing, new institution with great facilities and multi-campus ties to industry all around Scotland. That fact is the main draw for many students who come to work on industry projects, get support at every step, and grow into the Central Belt’s career landscape (and enjoy Scotland’s spectacular landscape at the same time).

Not ready to commit to UWS? Your first stop is weighing your Scottish options, from its cheapest to the best universities for international students.

UWS Basics

Degrees: BAcc, BSc, BEng, BA

Majors: Recognized for both expertise and student satisfaction in civil and aerospace engineering, this vocational giant is also regarded highly in fields normally reserved for locals, like teacher education (after all, students would have to be assured of a local job to stay in the country). Biology and social policy are also standouts. 

Location: 5 total campuses: Paisley (Glasgow’s west side in Renfrewshire), Dumfries, Ayr, and Lanarkshire, all in the South and SouthWest of Scotland. There is also a UWS London campus.

Cost for out-of-EU: £15,250 for most traditional undergraduate degrees. That includes international business programs without an English-language component and creative industry degrees like commercial music, filmmaking, journalism, and life sciences. Fees of £18,000 help cover resources necessary in these pricier degree programs: computer animation, games, development, cybersecurity, eSports, engineering fields, nursing and midwifery.

On-campus housing cost: £118/week at Paisley’s Storie Street, making for some of the most desirable student room pricing available near Glasgow.

FAFSA Funds: Yes

Abroad from abroad: Yes, UWS maintains relationships with multiple international schools, many of whom offer coursework in English. It also has a work-abroad program that helps students gain vocational experience abroad as part of their degrees. 

Student body: 16,000 students, including 3,500 internationals from 140 countries. 

Five adjectives: Practical, Pioneering, Resourceful, Human-Sized, Collaborative

Paisley: Studying on the West Side of Glasgow

Once just the Paisley campus, the campuses of the University of the West of Scotland today are sprinkled throughout Southwest Scotland. Paisley itself lies in the western suburbs of Glasgow, so students can jump on the simple city train system (it’s a circle) and maneuver themselves downtown whenever they like, enjoying the livable city of Glasgow.

In its heyday, Paisley was its own town, not just a suburb. Known for the textile industry, it was the ideal place to train new workers in industrial jobs. Today, 10,000 of the university’s 16,000 students call it their home campus. The city’s high street has a pedestrianized area, open squares, and tons of square footage for shopping — even a museum. But its sprawl owes more to days gone by than to the modern world. While Paisley is large, not all of it is thriving.

With multimillion-dollar redevelopment plans and a major museum revamp underway, Paisley’s city center may wind up looking more like the vibrant small town it is. Plenty of students take the convenience of Paisley over the reputation of the trendy West End and find there are places close to campus where they can soak up culture, feel safe, and save a few bucks all at once.

Land in Paisley and you’ll find stellar transportation links to other parts of the city. It’s just ten minutes by train to central Glasgow, where you’ll be dropped a stone’s throw from concert venues, galleries, indoor shopping centers, and plenty of restaurants. And getting to the airport is a snap, making Paisley one of the best base camps in Scotland for international travel connections.

Nevertheless, journalists note that Paisley “has a touch of Detroit about it.” Because it succeeded so long as an industrial power, there has been more retail space to close in Paisley in recent years than in other Scottish suburbs. That’s made the closures stand out. And that pedestrianized area? Instead of revitalizing Paisley’s urban core, it just encouraged shoppers to hop in their cars and head for the mall. Finally, to add insult to injury, Paisley has been recently ranked one of the unhappiest places in the UK for its utter lack of winter sunshine. 

What do students say? 

Paisley is much more affordable than central Glasgow. It has more historic buildings as well. Student life is actually fairly good here. And there’s no beating living close to campus. I haven’t found it unsafe at all, especially in the area around UWS.

Others find that urban life in Scotland is a lot like urban life elsewhere, and those who thrive in cities find Paisley’s got a lot of positive qualities:

People talk a lot about retail in Paisley and perhaps retail is lacking, but there’s actually quite a lot to do without leaving Paisley, like live music and coffee shops. And we’re 35 minutes to the coast. Nature is close by.

UWS itself is part of Paisley’s gentrification efforts. Nowadays, complaints about student noise eclipse fears about crime. In fact, Friday nights near UWS and the museum might be plagued by screams, but they’re all from students whooping it up in the clubs and pubs.

Want to join them? Head to De Beers, a handsome building reminiscent of a Berlin cabaret in the 1930s (and including a beer garden). Hit up The Bungalow for live music. Student night on Thursdays is just one way this local institution keeps music affordable. 

One bonus as setting up shop in Paisley is your proximity to the UWS campus and recreational opportunities in Ayr. An easy train ride away, you can check out Robert Burns’ old stomping ground and the sweeping Scottish coast, popular as a holiday spot in summer. Take a few stunning photos of the ruins of Greenan Castle, which looks like its ancient walls could tumble into the sea at any minute. The coast in Southwest Scotland is mystical, and it’s also temperate, warmed by the Golf Stream currents that flow up from the tropics, past the East Coast of the US, and onward to the North Atlantic. So dip your toes and enjoy the some of the best that Scottish nature has to offer.

Life on Campus at UWS

UWS’s campus is comprised of 20 buildings on 20 acres in Paisley. That said, it feels like a small urban corner in Scotland’s “largest town.” 

The campus’ core buildings are all in the center of Paisley and have undergone massive recent renovation. The Brough Building’s new atrium offers students a cozy café, plenty of places to plonk yourself on a couch and get today’s reading done, and a gym that’s free for students (that’s fairly rare among UK schools). There’s a hub that resembles a library and cafeteria in one. Order some food on your app, pick it up without waiting, and head off to see the chaplain or disability services. 

The union is likewise jam packed with spots for students to chill out, study, socialize, and seek support all at once. Grab a free game of pool and check out student societies. A good time is Wednesday, since UWS almost always leaves the afternoons free for students from multiple programs so they can participate in extracurriculars.

Internationals are well-represented here. Bangladeshi, Chinese, and Ghanian, Indian, Nepalese, and Nigerian students have established student societies at UWS. There is also a society for international students more generally. Remember, with multiple campuses, a home base that you may seek may not be available where you are. For example, Pakistani students already have a society where they can mingle with other Pakistani students…on the London campus. 

There’s also a brand new LGBTQIA+ student society in 2023. While Paisley’s not known for its queer life, the society can help introduce you to gay Glasgow, a very friendly city with an active gay life, multiple clubs and bars, a resource center, and an epic Pride tradition that includes paddle-boarders on the Clyde.

Elsewhere on campus, the purpose-built new buildings all sport intriguing chemistry, biological science, and business lab tools. Student complaints about facilities are rare. Being brand new and built for the programs students needed just a couple years ago, there isn’t much to complain about. In fact, many students come to UWS to take advantage of finely-tuned programs built around state-of-the-art equipment they feel confident is up to industry standards.

Student Accommodation: Paisley and UWS Costs and Amenities

In Paisley, Storie Street offers student accommodation for less than many other Scottish universities. Rooms are all “flat style,” with individual bedrooms, small attached, private bathrooms with a shower, and communal kitchens and lounges attached to groups of bedrooms, as if your room is just one oft-locked bedroom in a large apartment you happen to share with strangers. 

Students like the en suite bathrooms, the clean, if narrow rooms, and new facilities. Like all of the UWS campus, the student accommodation is in fantastic shape. 

Living in accommodation, you meet students from all over the world and it gives you a chance to get to know people from outside your course. My flatmates and I regularly hang out and try to include one another when nothing’s going on. There’s always someone around.

The surrounding area is also appealing to students who get a deal nearby compared to the rest of Glasgow. Want to go further afield and commute? You may pay more, but you’ll get your choice of some stellar urban neighborhoods around Glasgow.

Getting a Work-Ready Degree at UWS

UWS is a practically-minded program for students who are as serious about their careers as they are about theory. That means programs are all built with hands-on components and industry connections in mind. UWS has research centers focusing on sectors like engineering, health, society, the environment, and business. Students who come here set their sights on work placements that will help them get experience with cutting-edge projects. Their work with industry on projects like an ultralight wheelchair are the kinds of things that intrigue new students who hope they’ll get to dig into while at UWS.

And students don’t just get a single opportunity to explore their future work lives. Sign up for environmental biology, for instance, and you’ll get work in experience for a full year in food safety, and 9 more weeks in a second professional placement, from food to pollution, public health, housing, and even acoustics.

The university is also a standout in the supportive academic events it runs, like lunchtime brown-bag programs broken down for specific degrees, that help students understand and excel on semester projects. This can be a safety net for international students who don’t have the benefit of parents and friends who understand local university norms. What’s a good project? What are you doing completely wrong? UWS will tell you, and that’s a recipe for success often overlooked, especially for international students. Business and creative industry students can also look forward to workshops like those that feature lectures from local black entrepreneurs about how you might follow in their footsteps. 

Overall, programming at UWS, not just lip service, is dedicated to helping vulnerable students succeed, thrive, and get where they’re going.

International students find life here doesn’t have to be all work and no play. There are planned group outings to regional sites like Edinburgh castle that can help internationals get their bearings, see more of the country, and make friends at the same time. 

But not all students have had positive experiences:

If you like your course, you’ll find it’s all smooth sailing. If you don’t, you won’t have much ability to tailor it to what you do ant and you may have to transfer. I believe the high drop-out rate is due to students not being able to get what they want out of UWS’s offerings. I love my program. But you have to know ahead of time and not change your mind.

Others warn that UWS comes with a reputation for academic inferiority that they just couldn’t shake.

I do think it’s just stigma and UWS is not bad as the rankings. I haven’t had poor experiences with teaching and assignments in my program, for example. It has many ties to industry opportunities and others in my program haven’t had trouble getting prestigious jobs. 

And while programs emphasize work experience, students indicate that’s not universal, for all students in all programs. One that we talked to felt they would like more work experience:

I left feeling like I had no experience at all and would have been better off spending those years working.

While new universities, in new buildings, have some strengths in cutting-edge facilities, they may not always have a tried and true pipeline to the future for all students in all degrees. Students we talked to emphasized that they really appreciated the work UWS has already done to distinguish itself, but not everyone thought this new university had matured into a reliable, prestigious, and international powerhouse yet.

Apply

Coming from outside the UK? Apply directly on UWS’ own website. UWS doesn’t explicitly spell out academic minimums for its international students. Instead, it suggests that there are many ways to exhibit readiness for college work, including international baccalaureate degrees or alternative qualifications. You’ll also find a commitment in its pages to students from difficult situations, like those with refugee status or foster care in their histories. While they’re talking about Scottish students, UWS emphasizes that students from multiple worlds, with multiple experiences are just the kinds of students they’re seeking, and that they emphasise your letter of recommendation and personal essay in the admissions process.

What is the University of the West of Scotland Like?

The University of the West of Scotland is a dream for some students, but not everyone! Other Universities in Scotland with particular strengths connecting students to industry include the University of Strathclyde (Review / Guide). If your heart is set on Glasgow, you’ve got multiple choices. So dust off your Scottish brogue and consider your career in this livable city in the heart of Scotland.