h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today is S for Stirling

My son chose to go to Stirling University. This might have been to do with the fact that they offered a wide choice of modules in the first year; or that it was about as far from Mum and Dad as he could get. Stirling has a lovely campus, with its very own loch, but the student accommodation where my son stayed for the first year looked like a prison.

Stirling is regarded as the gateway to the Highlands. It is poised at the northern edge of the central Lowlands, which includes Glasgow and Edinburgh. As you travel north and west from the town you soon reach mountains. In this position, it's been much fought over. There is an old bridge over the Forth at the spot where William Wallace beat the English, and Bannockburn, where Robert the Bruce scored another victory, is not far away. There is a monument to Wallace, which is visible from a long way away and a grand Mediaeval castle on a hill above the town.

My son said his Scottish friends insisted he watched Braveheart several times and then decided he could be regarded as an honorary Scot! In any case, he stayed: completing his first degree, then doing his PhD and finally getting a job at the University. We told him he'd have to take out Scottish citizenship if the country became independent.

[Amy P]

Lots of years ago, which most things to do with me seem to sadly be, I did a degree with the Open University. Back then, Summer Schools were compulsory, and there is entire NaJoPoMo in waiting, and Stirling was generally held to be the place you really needed to go. Sadly none of my courses were ever held there, but Bath, York, and Cardiff, put your lawyers on standby; November 2015 you could be needed.

I have heard rumours about Open University Summer Schools.

Deb

MVP, mostly wildly exaggerated, but I have some stories I could tell, perhaps for NaJoPoMo 2032 when any chance litigation is diminished.