Our campus helps to create a stunning student experience

Situated at our beautiful riverside campus, RGU provides a wonderful environment in which to pursue learning and career ambitions, while being linked to some surprising history.

The stunning RGU campus runs along the River Dee, with campus grounds being around 60 acres (or 23 hectares) large and extending from end-to-end is 1.8 kilometres long, which would be the equivalent of 128 buses. RGU also owns 22 hectares of land at Waterside Farm on the opposite side of the River Dee.

Studying at a riverside campus not only means students can go on a campus trail during lunch breaks, but can also spot a wide range of wildlife including deer, red squirrels, rabbits, foxes, bats, and even seals along the river.

You can also study in our library, which has four floors of bookable study spaces, computer access, binding machines and printers, and 360° views of Aberdeen and the River Dee. On a really clear day, it has been said that the view from the top of the library tower extends as far as seeing the Lochnagar Mountain in Ballater fifty miles away. The library also offers a range of online support from referencing workshops, to researching guides, to digital journals and inter-library loans.

By the library is the Sir Ian Wood Building. Despite being able to see through the thin roof, it is made of Texlon ETFE to create a lightweight room with high insulation properties. There are three layers of the material, with air pressure between each kept constant, to make a strong roof for the building. Some say it could be strong enough to drive a Land Rover over it.

This is the inside of the building named after Ishbel Maria Gordon who lived from 1857-1939--a celebrated campaigner of women’s rights, author and philanthropist. During her life, she established many social activist groups in Scotland, Ireland and Canada including being the first president of the International Council of Women and founder of the Victorian Order of Nurses. RGU renamed the building after her to mark the centenary of women getting the right to vote to celebrate her contribution to women’s rights.

The Riverside Building was designed by Norman Foster Architects who are the same designers behind major projects such as 30 St Mary Axe in London, also known as The Gerkin, ‘The Armadillo’ and the Hydro in Glasgow, Wembley Stadium in London, and recently Apple Park in California. The Riverside Building was opened in 1999 and won a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Award for Architecture. Visit rgu.ac.uk and look for the virtual tour of the whole campus for more hidden nuggets of info about our campus.