University of St Andrews

University of St Andrews

Accommodation, Conferences and Events

Overview

A great conference starts with a great location. The University of St Andrews offers renowned facilities, with venues for up to 900 delegates, in an unrivalled position within the ancient town of St Andrews.

Arrange a conference with us and you will have over 90 meeting rooms to choose from, ranging from our historic venues Parliament Hall, Upper and Lower College Hall which overlooks St Salvator’s Quad, to landmark contemporary buildings including The Gateway and Medical Sciences Building. Our largest plenary venue is Younger Hall with a capacity of 900. 

All venues benefit from the latest technology in audio/visual facilities and free wi-fi access is available for delegates throughout any meeting or event.

Accommodation is available for delegates attending any conferences from June to September.  Delegates can choose to stay in Agnes Blackadder Hall which has en suite facilities, as well as Forbes Bar.

David Russell Apartments each contain 5 en suite bedrooms and a tv/diner area.  Facilities in the main building include Dragons Den Bar.

Standard accommodation is available in University and McIntosh Halls which both have shared facilities. 

All accommodation bookings include breakfast.  

COVID19 - Event Safety Guidelines and Capacities 'Coming Soon'
The images and capacities listed under 'The Venue' below may not reflect the new normal in guest experience such as physical distancing of public spaces, meeting spaces and changes to food and drink.

The Venue

Younger Hall

Room Capacity
Theatre 968

Buchanan Hall

Room Capacity
Theatre 367

Medical & Biological Science

Room Capacity
Theatre 300
Classroom 50
Boardroom 20
Reception 250

MBS Seminar Rooms 1 & 2

Room Capacity
Theatre 50
Classroom 50

MBS Meeting Rooms x 4

Room Capacity
Boardroom 15

MBS Meeting Rooms x 3

Room Capacity
Boardroom 10

Lower College Hall

Room Capacity
Theatre 190
Classroom 120
Boardroom 40
Reception 200
Dinner 152
Cabaret 120

Upper College Hall

Room Capacity
Theatre 160
Boardroom 40
Reception 200
Dinner 152

School 1

Room Capacity
Theatre 94

School 2

Room Capacity
Theatre 94

School 3

Room Capacity
Theatre 156

School 5

Room Capacity
Theatre 60

School 6

Room Capacity
Theatre 106

Physics Lecture Theatre A

Room Capacity
Theatre 350

Physics Lecture Theatre B

Room Capacity
Theatre 130

Physics Lecture Theatre C

Room Capacity
Theatre 90

Maths Lecture Theatre A

Room Capacity
Theatre 52

Maths Lecture Theatre B

Room Capacity
Theatre 92

Maths Lecture Theatre C

Room Capacity
Theatre 111

Maths Lecture Theatre D

Room Capacity
Theatre 137

The Gateway

Room Capacity
Theatre 160
Classroom 100
Boardroom 15
Reception 200
Dinner 140

Gateway Boardroom

Room Capacity
Theatre 40
Boardroom 32
Reception 40
Dinner 40

Arts Lecture Theatre

Room Capacity
Theatre 90

Parliament Hall

Room Capacity
Theatre 180
Boardroom 54
Reception 200
Cabaret 90

Facilities

On-site Parking
300+ spaces over North Haugh & David Russell Apartments
Nearby Parking
Free car parking close to North Haugh
Airport
15 miles Dundee | 50 miles Edinburgh
Railway
6 miles Leuchars

Additional Syndicate and Breakout Rooms

Many of our venues listed have additional breakout and syndicate rooms available, these vary from capacities of 10 to 72 delegates,  our website ace.st-andrews.ac.uk gives a comprehensive overview of all meeting spaces including images and capacities.

Virtual Tour

View our virtual tours here

History

Founded in the 15th century, St Andrews is Scotland's first university and the third oldest in the English speaking world. Teaching began in the community of St Andrews in 1410. In 2009, St Andrews became the first Scottish ancient university to appoint a woman as Principal, recruiting Professor Louise Richardson from the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard, to lead it into its seventh century. She was succeeded in 2016 by Professor Sally Mapstone.

St Andrews recently celebrated 600 years of continuous existence during which time it has made an enduring contribution to the intellectual and cultural life of both Scotland and the wider world.

Sustainability

The University of St Andrews embraces sustainable development across all of its operations, fully integrating in it in all that we do.  Current sustainable practices and achievements include:

- A reuse and recycling rate of 73%

- 100% of University food waste is recycled at an anaerobic digestion plant, and all of our green waste is composted.

- The University’s sustainable food policy and action plan promotes sourcing as much of the University’s food and drink from local and sustainable businesses.

- The University has held Fairtrade University status since 2006 and constantly works on expanding it fairtrade product range.  Currently all of the University’s sugar, coffee, hot chocolate and bananas are Fairtrade-certified.

- Through the energy investment (Salix) fund, the University has committed £4.4 million to energy efficiency measures across campus, with another £5.1 million to be invested over the next 18 months. The fund is the largest and most successful in the UK higher education sector.

- All new building projects since 2010 have achieved BREEAM excellent green building certification. Our latest research laboratory is the first BREEAM outstanding building in Scotland and first outstanding laboratory in the UK.

- Procurement of conflict-free electronics and IT equipment.

- The energy efficient data centre holds a Gold CEEDA award.

- The Museum of the University of St Andrews (MUSA), as well as three halls of residence, hold Gold Green Tourism Awards.

- The dedicated Environment team develops the ideas and vision to deliver improved environment and sustainability performance.

- The sustainable development policy and strategy is supported by the Principal and University Court.

- Sustainable and responsible investment programme developed through student consultation.

Eden Campus Energy Centre

The Eden Campus Energy Centre is central to the University of St Andrews' strategic drive to become the UK’s first energy carbon neutral university. It will supplement other University carbon reducing projects such as electricity generation by wind turbines at the Kenly Farm site, and improvements to existing campus buildings to reduce their energy demand. The combination of all these strategies will create the first energy carbon neutral university in the UK and further enhance the University and Scotland as leaders in sustainable development.

GENESIS Centre

The GENEration Storage Innovation and Sustainability Centre (GENESIS) is a new facility for research and development activity in storing and converting energy. It will provide a space where companies can access University and industrial expertise, engage with other companies, build business-to-business collaborations, and develop and experimentally test innovative new approaches to the development of low-carbon energy systems.

The Centre will be seen as a business-facing facility. It represents the deployment of the University’s interface between research and applied commercialisation in areas of energy conversion and storage. It will be a place where companies can access both equipment and knowledge – providing facilities to test products, on the one hand, while also providing a forum for engagement between companies and with the academics driving the extensive energy-related work in which the University is engaged.

In attracting private partners, interaction between private businesses will be facilitated and encouraged, on the principle that other companies are your potential collaborators, not your competitors. It will be designed in a way to grow a body of energy-related economic activity around Eden Campus, to act as a catalyst for wider economic growth in the Fife and Tay cities.

In doing so, the GENESIS facility will complement other innovation centres in Scotland which provide test or demonstration space for low-carbon technologies, particularly the following:

- Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc (MSIP) in Dundee
- National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (at Strathclyde)
- Power Networks Distribution Centre (also at Strathclyde).

St Andrews already has contact with all these facilities through involvement in the Energy Technology Partnership, and through links made with Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc (MSIP) to ensure that the two facilities are complementary. 

There is a strong synergy between what is proposed at MSIP and Eden Campus. The University of St Andrews offers a strong academic base to complement the strong manufacturing offering at MSIP. The activities are complementary focusing on slightly different ranges in the technology readiness scale (TRL). This synergy is already apparent, and we are in discussions to formalise this with an outline protocol to ensure synergy and cross-referral of companies. Illustrating the synergy, the largest activity currently proposed for Michelin relates to a company that works closely with St Andrews on research and development, and this relationship has greatly improved the prospects of that company setting up in Dundee. A recent £12 million grant led by St Andrews in the relevant area serves to further reinforce these prospects.

Preferred Rates

As a member of Dundee & Angus Convention Bureau you can receive a preferred discount on any direct enquiries (minimum numbers apply) – please quote 'DACB' on enquiring.

Memberships

Member of:

  • Dundee & Angus Convention Bureau
  • Member of Meetings Industry Association AiM Accreditation
  • VisitScotland Grading Scheme Member
  • Campus Accommodation
  • University of St Andrews Gallery
  • The Gateway Exterior - University of St Andrews
  • Campus Accommodation
  • The Quad  - University of St Andrews
  • Aerial View of Lower College   - University of St Andrews
  • Dinner at Lower College Hall  - University of St Andrews

Reviews

MD
Martin Dowling
August 2019

"A big thank you to you and the all staff who served us a wonderful dinner last night.  Our guests were really impressed with the venue of Lower College Hall, the friendly service and the excellent dinner."

JW
Jean Wilson
January 2019

"I just wanted to say thank you to you and your team for all of your help and patience over the last few weeks.  It was the first event where I’ve had to fly solo and you all made everything so simple and efficient and I couldn’t speak more highly of you all."

HM
Heidi Moller
March 2019

"Our wedding planning was quite intense as we only had a few months to prepare and were living in London at the time which is hundreds of miles away from our wedding location!  I was so thankful for the help of Kerry at St Andrews University events who went over and above to help me plan the reception."

Relevant Information