School matters
Welfare
The School’s Student Welfare Officers, Dr Miriam Sturdee and Dr Kirsty Ross, can be contacted to discuss any aspect of student welfare via student-welfare-cs@st-andrews.ac.uk.
Health and safety
Students are expected to be familiar with the School’s Health and Safety Policy and Basic Health and Safety Guidance. Students can also view the full listing of the School’s health and safety guidance and risk assessments. The School’s Safety Coordinator is David Letham. First aid boxes are located in Jack Cole Building (in the School Office) and in the John Honey Building kitchen. There is a defibrillator in the Jack Cole Building foyer opposite the front door.
Considerate behaviour
Students are expected to behave in a manner that is considerate and respectful to all members of school, including fellow students and staff. Unacceptable behaviour includes being disruptive in classes and labs, sleeping in school buildings, bringing smelly food into labs and going barefoot in school premises.
Comments and feedback
The most common route for giving comments and feedback on any School matter is to contact the appropriate staff member.
Complaints can be submitted by following the University’s formal complaints procedure or by emailing complaints-cs@st-andrews.ac.uk.
The University’s Report+ support tool can be used to report an incident or request advice and support.
Student representation
The Staff-Student Consultative Committee (SSCC) includes all teaching staff, student class representatives, and the School President. It meets at least once each semester, providing a forum for discussion of any issues of concern to students, and is chaired by the School President. Minutes of SSCC meetings are kept and published.
Class representatives are elected early in Semester 1, through an online process conducted by the Students’ Association.
The 2025/26 School President (Devina Naraindas Sainani) can be contacted via compscipresident@st-andrews.ac.uk.
Students may bring issues of concern to the attention of the President or their class representative at any time.
Mentoring scheme
The School President (an Honours student) and School have run a mentoring scheme for a number of years now, and will be continuing this year in a slightly different format. The aim is to pair up 1 mentor (2nd year or above) with 1 or 2 mentees (1st year or direct entry).
Students can sign up to be a mentor in the summer, and students can sign up to be a mentee in the first 2 weeks of the academic year (they will receive emails in due time with instructions).
Being a mentee gives you a chance to receive informal support and ask questions about the school, the town, and university life as a whole, and it offers an opportunity to meet new people.
As a mentor, you will help mentees settle in, answer any questions they might have, and give them an opportunity to make friends with fellow incoming students.
Careers
Dr Kirsty Ross is the School’s student careers liaison and can be approached to discuss aspects relating to careers and you can also sign up to our own Computer Science Careers Mailing List. The link to the mailing list server is only accessible from on-campus. To subscribe via email, send an email to selby-sympa@st-andrews.ac.uk, from your University account, with the subject line “subscribe careers-cs <your-name>”. Replace <your-name> with the name you want to use on the list.
You can also go directly to the University Careers Centre which has a number of careers advisers and provides support and guidance on your career options.
Internships
Students regularly win summer internships, allowing them to carry out a research project within one of the School’s research groups, usually after their second or third year. Funding sources include the Laidlaw Leadership and Research Programme and Research Internship Scheme (StARIS), and external bodies such as the Nuffield Foundation.
References
Members of staff are usually willing to give references. It is a requirement that we have a record of the student’s permission before doing so. It is also advisable (and polite) to ask the member of staff before naming her or him as a referee, to provide details of the position being applied for, and to provide a copy of your CV.
Gifts
Staff are not permitted to receive gifts from students. Please do not be offended if we refuse to accept a gift.
Library
Module reading lists are accessible from the School module pages. Students are expected to find out further information about their subjects on their own.
The University Library provides a specific Computer Science library guide.
Appropriate books may be found mainly in the JF Allen Library, on the top floor of the Physics & Astronomy Building. A smaller range is also available in the main University Library in North Street.
Some research journals, such as IEEE Software, Communications of the ACM and Computer Survey, have articles at a suitable level for study by undergraduates and MSc students. Note the availability of various digital libraries, e.g. from the ACM and IEEE.
Printing and binding
The University’s Print and Design Unit is ideally set up to print and/or bind your dissertation or thesis. You can send your material in PDF format (with a note of pages to be printed in colour) to: printanddesign@st-andrews.ac.uk and then they will be in touch when your job is ready. Please make sure the version you submit is your final version.