25 September 2008

MP to visit UK's happiest politics students

Photo opportunity: 11am, Friday September 26th
D’Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre (off main foyer)
Tower Building, University of Dundee

Dundee East MP Stewart Hosie will meet the country’s happiest politics students when he visits the University of Dundee this week.

This may be a turbulent time in politics but the students at Dundee could barely be more content, according to the results of the National Student Survey, which names them as the most satisfied politics undergraduates in the UK. 220,000 students across the UK took part in the survey which measured their satisfaction in the quality of their teaching.

They can still be expected to give Mr Hosie a thorough grilling on his experiences as an MP though, as he meets them to discuss the role of MPs at Westminster. The lecture is part of the first-year students’ introduction to their course.

Mr Hosie’s predecessor as the MP for Dundee East, Iain Luke, will also take part.

'We put a lot of effort into making the student experience at Dundee a good one and the results of the survey show we are on the right track,' said Professor Alan Dobson, convener of the Politics programme at the University.

'It is doubly encouraging because we don’t just have satisfied students but an awful lot of them - we have just had a record intake to Politics for the new first-year, with around 250 students enrolled and the numbers still rising.'

'We hear an awful lot of talk these days about young people are not interested in politics but our experience at Dundee is completely the opposite - we have record numbers at all levels of the course and are receiving enquiries all the time from people interested in coming here.'

'The political scene at the moment, on both the national and international stages, could barely be more turbulent. What we see here is that young people are more interested than ever in engaging in the key debates of our time and getting to grips with how they are shaping our world.'

'Having experienced politicians like Stewart Hosie and Iain Luke coming here to speak to the students gives them an immediate insight into how our political systems operate.'

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk