Carlisle United’s players are going to university as part of their pre-season build-up.

But the learning will be done strictly on the pitch.

Paul Simpson is taking his squad to the University of St Andrews later this month.

The Blues will have use of the university’s football pitches, which have been used by a number of top clubs over the years.

It will form a training camp similar to last summer’s trip north of the border to Largs.

There is also likely to be a pre-season friendly with a Scottish club while United are there.

Manager Simpson said: “We're going to go and have five days on St Andrews University.

“I went and visited it maybe March-April time just to look at the facility and it looks a good place.

“There are quite a number of teams who’ll be there, but we've got a good surface to train on.

“It's quite basic facilities in terms of where the players are living, but I'm not bothered about that – they're there to work and they’ll enjoy it.”

The University of St Andrews boast that their pitches are “among the finest in Scotland”.

They have been used by clubs such as Barcelona and Manchester United, while one of United’s pre-season opponents, Dundee United, use St Andrews as their full-time training base.

News and Star: Dundee United use St Andrews as their regular training baseDundee United use St Andrews as their regular training base (Image: PA)

The Scottish rugby union team also regularly train there.

Simpson confirmed United were planning to arrange a game during the trip.

“When we go to Scotland we're probably going to play a game against another Scottish team up there – and they are a real physical test because they're a few weeks ahead of us in terms of fitness,” said the United boss.

Scottish clubs will start competitive action on July 15 in the League Cup.

United used their trip to the Inverclyde National Training Centre in Largs last summer to take on Livingston in a behind-closed-doors encounter.