Though the historical past of the establishment dates again over 100 years, it solely achieved degree-awarding powers final yr. Specialising in agriculture and life sciences, SRUC hopes to change into an more and more enticing alternative for worldwide college students.
“For a few years, SRUC’s been a sleeping large,” SRUC’s principal and chief government Wayne Powell informed The PIE Information. “Now we’ve awoken and we will see big quantity of potential in what we will provide right here in Scotland.”
Providing worldwide masters packages together with worldwide meals and agriculture enterprise, enterprise consultancy and undertaking administration, Powell mentioned the establishment is “making a future which is rather more aligned to what college students for the longer term will need to do” – with worldwide recruitment efforts largely trying to college students from India, Pakistan, Nigeria and different elements of sub-Saharan Africa.
With six campuses positioned round Scotland, SRUC’s Edinburgh campus launched a £1.8 million vertical farming innovation centre in January, making it the primary Scottish greater schooling establishment in Scotland to create a commercial-sized vertical farm to assist deal with world and native meals manufacturing challenges.
“Among the issues that we work on are on the nexus of crucial challenges dealing with society. So how can we feed a rising world?” defined Powell. “How can we help environmental sustainability?”
He continued: “We’re serious about attracting college students which have an id and an curiosity in sustainability and the way the sustainability will play out over their lifetimes”.
However whereas sustainability is undeniably a spotlight for the establishment, Powell burdened that potential college students are additionally being enticed by curriculums focussing on enterprise – particularly as SRUC runs its personal “profitable consultancy enterprise”.
Now we’ve awoken and we will see big quantity of potential in what we will provide right here in Scotland
Wayne Powell, SRUC
Studying about worldwide agriculture, meals and enterprise in tandem can be a spotlight for packages, “significantly the potential for buying these enterprise expertise as a part of a inexperienced financial system”, Powell mentioned.
“And our location in Edinburgh [creates] a improbable alternative to return and reside and work and research in an incredible metropolis,” he added.
“There’s one thing right here which goes to be enticing and we’re eager to market that in the proper manner and creating the primary cohort of scholars coming into one thing actually particular.”
It comes as Scotland has taken steps to place itself as a pretty vacation spot for worldwide college students. In late January, the nation’s universities had been inspired to take “collective motion” to advertise Scotland as a research vacation spot.
In the identical week, Scotland’s first minister John Swinney made the case for a bespoke visa for expert worldwide college students graduating from the nation’s schools and universities. Nevertheless, it’s understood that the UK authorities has no plans to make good on these ambitions.
