About SRUC
Strong in our heritage. Ambitious for our future.

Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) was established in 2012 through the merger of the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) with Barony, Elmwood and Oatridge Colleges. Through these institutions, we can trace our lineage back over 100 years.
Scrolls down to learn more. You can also download our strategic plan.

Name and history
The creation of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) took place in 2012 by merging SAC (the Scottish Agricultural College) with three respected partners (Barony, Elmwood and Oatridge Colleges).
But of course our roots go back a lot further than that.
SRUC departments & locations


Courses & Training
With hundreds of courses across more than 20 disciplines, we provide the skills, experience and confidence you need to create a successful career.


Veterinary & laboratory services
Our leading experts provide support to clients in areas of animal disease, diagnosis and surveillance.

Commercial opportunities
Helping develop innovative solutions to industry challenges and needs.

Our Mission
SRUC is on a journey to become Scotland’s enterprise university at the heart of our sustainable natural economy.
Our vision and global aims
Our mission is to create and mobilise knowledge and talent – partnering locally and globally to benefit Scotland’s natural economy.
To achieve this, we draw upon SRUC’s longstanding strengths in world-class and sector-leading research, learning and teaching, skills and training and consultancy (through SAC Consulting).
A natural economy is fuelled by responsible use of our natural resources: people, land, energy, water, animals and plants. It is an interlinked, shared, living system that creates opportunities and prosperity. It is multi-scale, dynamic and resilient through creative management and mindful custodianship.
By focussing on the sustainable natural economy, SRUC will strive to lead the way in delivering economic, social and environmental benefits for all, in Scotland, and beyond.

Our values
SRUC’s shared values were created by staff to shape the way we behave within the organisation and to describe how we deliver our services to customers and stakeholders.
Our shared values are summed up by an acronym, so we may RISE to our values:
Respect
We pledge to respect everyone’s contributions.
Innovate
We thrive to innovate for success.
Support
We always support each other.
Excel
We aspire to excel in everything we do.
These values were identified by employees as those they felt were most important to cultivate in the organisation. They reflect our ethos and underpin an environment that inspires and supports all employees to give their best and feel proud to work for SRUC.
With these values we hope to bring people together and ensure they feel part of one big team here at SRUC. A team which works effectively together, and looks forward confidently to a successful future.
You can download our full statement to find out more about our values and what they mean to us.
SRUC staff and students

Our people
We're still working on this portion of our new site - you can visit the Staff A-Z on our previous site.

Student success stories
Studying at SRUC can be a great stepping stone to the career you've always dreamed about. Read about some of our former students and how their course has helped them achieve their goals.

Alumni & friends
If you studied or worked at SRUC, SAC (previously the North, West and East of Scotland Agricultural Colleges), Barony College, Elmwood College, or Oatridge College – we welcome you to the SRUC Alumni Community.

Newsletter
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