The University of Stirling (University o Stirlin, Oilthigh Shruighlea (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built within the walled Airthrey Castle estate.
The university campus is approximately in size, incorporating the Stirling University Innovation Park and the Dementia Centre. The campus is located in the foothills of the Ochil Hills. In 2002, the University of Stirling and the landscape of the Airthrey Estate was designated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites as one of the UK's top 20 heritage sites of the 20th century.
As of 2022, the university has 14,000 part-time and full-time students. Stirling has international degree programme partnerships in China with Hebei Normal University, Singapore with Singapore Institute of Management, and Oman. The university offers a MSc in Human Rights & Diplomacy, which is the only Human Rights and Diplomacy programme in the world taught in partnership with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
Stirling was the first new university to be established in Scotland for nearly 400 years. The original site of the campus was selected from a shortlist of competing sites, which include Falkirk, Perth and Inverness. The author of the Robbins Review, which recommended an expansion of the number of universities in the UK during the 1960s, Lord Robbins, was appointed as the university's first chancellor in 1968. In 1967 a house for the university principal Tom Cottrell was completed, designed by architects Morris and Steedman. It was listed as category A in 2009.
The Pathfoot Building, which represented the first phase of development on the campus, was completed in 1968 and originally housed lecture theatres, offices and classrooms in addition to the iconic 'crush hall' where the university displayed its emerging collection of contemporary Scottish art.