Abertay University was originally founded as the Dundee Technical Institute in 1888. It lies right in the heart of Dundee city centre, and all its campuses are within a quarter of a mile of each other.

Courses and students

The university is based around three schools and a range of departments.

• School of Design, Informatics and Business is home to the Department of Games Technology and Mathematics, Department of Games and Arts, Department of Cybersecurity and Computing, and the Dundee Business School. 
• School of Social and Applied Sciences is home to the Department of Built Environment and Life Sciences, Department of Health, Sport and Wellbeing, and the Department of Sociological and Psychological Sciences. 
• Graduate School provides support, training and professional development opportunities to the postgraduate community.

The university offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Abertay is well known for its world-leading courses in computer arts and computer games technology and launched the world’s first Ethical Hacking degree.

It may be possible to study abroad at one of the university's partner institutions in places such as Europe, Canada, USA and Hong Kong.

There are around 4,000 students, representing over 60 countries.

Facilities and services

Abertay University has many great facilities to offer its students including the Kydd Building with specialist labs such as the Emergent Technology Centre, the National Centre for Excellence in Computer Games, and Scotland's only industry-standard food science consumer research lab; the award winning Bernard King Library which includes fully equipped seminar rooms, study rooms and a language centre; a Student Centre which is the cultural and social hub of the city campus; the cyberQuarter, an £18 million cybersecurity research and development centre; and Abertay Sport, which plays an important part of university life, with a wide range of sports teams on offer. 

Abertay GameLab has advanced development facilities, with 50 computer stations used for the high-end game and graphics development.

Hundreds of rooms are available in the modern purpose-built residence, Parker House, located a five-minute walk to the campus.

Ranking

Abertay University came up first as modern Scottish university in the Guardian University Guide 2026, and ranked 12th in the UK for student satisfaction in the Complete University Guide 2026.

The Guardian University Guide ranks Abertay 14th in the UK for Animation and Game Design and 18th for Forensic Science. 

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