A-Z of Higher Education Colleges: The Scottish Agricultural Cultural

Age: 100, from first incarnations.

History: Born of a merger, in 1990, of three existing Scottish agricultural colleges - the East of Scotland College of Agriculture, the North of Scotland College of Agriculture and the West of Scotland Agricultural College, all of which came into being around the turn of the century.

Address: Three campuses - number one is on the Craibstone Estate, five miles from the centre of Aberdeen; the second is at Auchincruive, near Ayr; the third on the science campus at the University of Edinburgh.

Ambience: Largest campus at Ayr has picturesque gardens leading down to the river on the Auchincruive estate, close to hills and beaches. Focal point is an 18th-century Robert Adam house. Aberdeen is a suburban campus, quite quiet, and with newly upgraded buildings. Edinburgh students lurk in a corner of King's Buildings which look a bit like an industrial estate.

Vital Statistics: Small college of HE with 1,000 students which provides an integrated system of education, training and advice, supported by practical research. Genuinely vocational education. As with other agricultural colleges, it teaches related studies and business, rural tourism and leisure management. Agriculture is not available as a first degree. Students have a good time and play a lot of sport. Degrees validated by universities of Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Added value: Good sporting facilities at Aberdeen campus - where a new golf course has been built with Lottery money and opens next month - and at Ayr.

Easy to get into? For degree courses you need three Highers at level B, or two A-levels.

Glittering alumni: Dodie Weir, who plays for Scotland rugby union team; Brian Pack, chairman of Aberdeen and Northern Marts (a big meal-processing company); John Home Robertson, member of the Scottish Parliament.

Transport links: From Ayr campus you have to hop on a bus (20 minutes) to Glasgow, from whence there are trains and buses. Aberdeen campus is adjacent to the airport. Edinburgh also good for air, trains and buses.

Who's the boss? Professor Karl Linklater, a vet and fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, who tends a flock of sheep at his home in the Scottish Borders.

Teaching: Not subject to the teaching quality assessment regime because it's funded directly by the Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department, not by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council.

Research: Did not enter the 1996 research assessment exercise because it's not funded by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council.

Financial health: In the red. Struggling to make ends meet by, for example, charging people to use the new golf course coming on stream this autumn.

Nightlife: Centre of student life at Craibstone (Aberdeen) is the student bar which holds huge ceilidhs and good discos; same thing true at Auchincruive where the bar has an annual summer ball plus regular discos and ceilidhs. Edinburgh students can use the university facilities.

Cheap to live in? You pay pounds 38-pounds 51 a week for a room in hall (no food); pounds 62-pounds 72 for a room with half-board; from pounds 77 for a room and full-board.

Buzz-word: The Haymakers (what agricultural students dance at a ceilidh).

Next week: Surrey Institute of Art and Design