If you’re planning to apply to uni in Dundee, our student guide to the city has all you need to know about student life.
Updated: 16 Mar 2025
The fourth largest city in Scotland, Dundee has plenty to offer students. With its east coast location, it’s easy to access other major Scottish cities and offers absolutely stunning scenery. If you’re looking for a vibrant student town with low cost of living and two unis to choose from, then Dundee is a great choice. In our guide to the city, we break down some of the most important elements of student life to help you decide if Dundee is right for you.
Living in Dundee, there are plenty of great activities to check out. There’s a wide variety of museums and art galleries, so you can check out some art or history. Alternatively, you might want to go ‘Beano spotting’ – there are many statues throughout the city that reference the children’s comic book series, so it can be fun (and free) to see how many you can spot.
With over 10,000 students, you can be sure that there’s plenty of nightlife around Dundee to take advantage of. If you’re looking for a club, why not go out to Club Tropicana & Venga, or Fat Sams? If clubs aren’t your thing, then you might want to check out some of Dundee’s live music venues such as Conroy’s Basement/Rad Apples or Duke’s Corner.
If neither live music nor clubbing is what you’re looking for, then not to worry, because there are plenty of quieter bars and pubs you can go and sit in to have a gossip with your mates. The student bars are always popular, or you could head to somewhere like The Phoenix or The Tinsmith.
In Dundee, you’ll probably live in university-owned halls for your first year. At the University of Dundee, rooms in halls are priced between £183 and £214 per week, while at Abertay University rooms start at £129 and go up to £202 per week.
In your second year and onwards, you’ll likely be renting privately, and you might find that this works out a bit cheaper than the uni halls. A three-bedroom flat goes for around £1150 per month, which is just over £380 per person per month – a bargain! If you’re renting privately, you’ll probably have to factor in paying utility bills, as these probably won’t be included in your rent. You can expect these to be around £60-£70 per month, but it’ll vary depending on the number of flatmates you have as well as with seasonal use.
The city is relatively compact, but if you find yourself in need of public transport, you can take advantage of your student status to make savings. A student one-way bus ticket costs £1.60, and you can get a monthly travel pass for £50, so if you make more than one journey a day you’ll be saving.
For travel further afield, you’ll find a rail station with direct trains to locations including Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Dundee also has an airport, which flies to London, Belfast and Samburgh.
Unfortunately, after you’ve paid your rent and tuition fees, there are yet more expenses associated with being a student. Fortunately for you though, Dundee has a comparatively low cost of living, so you should find that after you’ve paid your rent you still have some of your maintenance loan left over. The next major expense you’ll need to think about is your groceries. On average, UK students spend £44 per week on groceries, but you might be able to save on this by shopping around for the best deals and getting a loyalty card to supermarkets you use regularly.
Now you’ve got all that boring stuff out the way – what about some fun? How much does it cost to have fun in Dundee? Well, good news, because it’s cheaper than a lot of other UK cities. A meal for one at an inexpensive restaurant is about £15, a pint of beer about £4, and if you push the boat out and take a date to a three-course meal at a mid-range restaurant, you’re looking at a bill of around £60.
You’ll also want to keep a little bit of money aside to cover your course books, printer credits, stationery and any other course-related items you might need to purchase.
NEXT: Learn more about the cost of living in Dundee.
The University of Dundee is the largest university in the city and offers courses across a huge range of different subject areas. It ranked 51 in the UK’s universities according to the Complete University Guide’s 2025 league tables and was ranked in the UK top 10 universities for three different subject areas – medical technology and bioengineering, dentistry, and medicine.
NEXT: Read more about the University of Dundee.
The University of Abertay is a much smaller university, but ranked highly for student satisfaction, coming in at 10th in the UK overall according to the Complete University Guide. The uni is proud to blend historic and modern, which you’ll see in its buildings contrasted with the modern, high-spec equipment available.
NEXT: Learn more about Abertay University.
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