, founded in 1583 , is a renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh , Scotland . It is one of the Ancient Universities Of Scotland and is amongst the largest and most prestigious in the United Kingdom .
See Also: History of Edinburgh University
The founding of the University is attributed to Bishop Robert Reid of St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall , who left the funds on his death in 1558 that ultimately provided the endowment for the University of Edinburgh. The University was established by a Royal Charter granted by James VI in 1582 . This was an unusual move at the time, as most universities were established through Papal Bull s. What makes the University of Edinburgh even more unusual is the fact that its funding came the following year from the Town Council, making it in many ways the first civic university, known as the "Tounis College". It became the fourth Scottish university in a period when the much more populous and richer England had only two. By the 18th century Edinburgh was a leading centre of the European Enlightenment and became one of the continent's principal universities.
Before the building of Old College to plans by Robert Adam implemented after the Napoleonic Wars by the architect William Henry Playfair , the University of Edinburgh did not enjoy a custom built campus and existed in a hotchpotch of buildings from its establishment until the early 19th Century. The university's first custom built building was the magnificent Old College, now the School Of Law , situated on South Bridge. Its first forte in teaching was Anatomy and the developing science of Surgery , from which it expanded into many other subjects. From the basement of a nearby house ran the anatomy tunnel corridor. It went under what was then North College Street (now Chambers Street), and under the University buildings until it reached the University's anatomy lecture theatre, delivering bodies for dissection. It was from this tunnel that the body of William Burke was taken after he had been hanged.
Towards the end of the 19th century, Old College was becoming too cramped and so Robert Rowand Anderson was commissioned to design a new Medical School premise in 1875 . The medical school was more or less built to his design and was completed by the addition of the awe inspiring McEwan Hall in the 1880s .
The building now known as New College was originally built as a Free Church college in the 1840s and has been the home of Divinity at the University since the 1920s .
In addition, the University is responsible for a number of historic and modern buildings across the City, including the oldest purpose-built concert hall in Scotland, and the second oldest in use in the British Isles, St Cecilia's Concert Hall ; Teviot Row House , which is the oldest purpose built Student Union Building in the world; and the handsomely restored 17th-century Mylne's Court student residence which stands at the head of Edinburgh's Royal Mile .
Edinburgh's Library pre-dates its University by three years. Founded in 1580, its collection has grown to become the largest university library in Scotland with over 2 million periodicals, manuscripts, Theses , Microform s and printed works. These are housed in the main University Library building in George Square - one of the largest academic library buildings in Europe, designed by Basil Spence - and an extensive series of Faculty and Departmental Libraries.
The two oldest Schools - Law and Divinity - are both well-esteemed in their respective subjects, with Law being based in Old College, and Divinity being based in New College, on the Mound, just in front of the temporary home of the Scottish Parliament . Students at the university are represented by the Edinburgh University Students' Association , EUSA, comprising Edinburgh University Union (EUU) which was founded in 1889 and the Student Representative Council (SRC), founded in 1884 by Robert Fitzroy Bell .
Edinburgh University also boasts a Student Newspaper ('' Student '') founded by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1887 .
In 2002 the University was re-organised from its 9 academic faculties into three 'Colleges'. While technically not a Collegiate University , it now comprised of the Colleges of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), Science & Engineering (SCE) and Medicine & Vet Medicine (MVM). Within these Colleges are 'Schools' - roughly equivalent to the departments they succeeded. (However, it is notable that individual Schools have a good degree of autonomy regarding their finances and internal organisation) This has brought a certain degree of uniformity (in terms of administration at least) across the University.
Along similar lines, all teaching is now done over two semesters (rather than 3 terms) - bringing the timetables of different Schools into line with one another, and coming in to line with many other large universities. (notably in the US , but to an increasing degree in the UK as well)
-designed Old College building, home of its Law School ]]
The 2005 Times Higher Education Supplement {Link without Title} World University Rankings ranked the University of Edinburgh as follows:
- for biomedicine
- according to recruiters' eyes
- for arts and humanities
- for science
- overall
The Academic Ranking of World Universities 2005 {Link without Title} ranked the University of Edinburgh as follows:
- in the UK
- in Europe
- in the world
''The Times Good University Guide 2006'' has ranked the university of Edinburgh the fifth best university in the UK overall and the fourth best for teaching quality.
In 2005, the university was the .
The university has the third largest Financial Endowment among UK universities at £160m and the third largest endowment per student, according to the Sutton Trust (2002).
The University of Edinburgh is a member of the , an international association of research-driven universities.
- The School of Divinity
- The School of Arts, Culture and Environment
- The School of Health in Social Science
- The School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures
- The School of History and Classics
- The School Of Law
- Management School and Economics
- The School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
- The School of Social and Political Studies
- The Moray House School of Education
- The School of Biomedical Sciences
- The School of Clinical Sciences and Community Health
- The School of Molecular and Clinical Medicine
- The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies
- The School of Biological Sciences
- The School of Chemistry
- The School of Engineering and Electronics
- The School of GeoSciences
- The School Of Informatics
- The School of Mathematics
- The School of Physics
Queen's University , a prestigious Canadian University founded in 1841, was modelled after the University of Edinburgh, and continues to display strong Scottish roots and traditions today.
Edinburgh is one of the greenest and most architecturally beautiful cities in Europe often referred to as the "Athens of the North". The University plays an integral role in the city, contributing to its vibrant atmosphere. However, as well as the architectural gems cited above, it has contributed several of the most ugly buildings in the city. These include the Appleton Tower and the University Library (at George Square) and the Darwin building (at the south Edinburgh King's Buildings site).
With the expansion in topics of study the university has expanded its campuses such that it now has seven main sites:
- was opened on 12th August 2002 by The Duke Of Edinburgh and houses the new £40 million Medical School at the New Royal Infirmary in '''Little France'''. It was a joint project between private finance, the local authorities and the University to create a large modern hospital, veterinary clinic and research institute and thus the University is currently ( 2003 ) in the process of moving its Veterinary and Medical Faculties there (and quite possibly also the School of Nursing). It has two large lecture theatres and a medical library. It is connected to the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary by a series of corridors.
- and surrounding streets in the southern central area of the city is the oldest region, occupied primarily by the schools of art, social science, medicine and law, as well as the main university library. It is also used for teaching first year undergraduates in science and engineering. Nearby are the main EUSA buildings of Potterrow, Teviot Row House and the Pleasance Societies Centre. Old residents of George Square include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle .
- The at Summerhall, at the East end of The Meadows. This houses Veterinary Medicine.
- The , further south, houses most of the Science and Engineering schools including a Biology School that is a world leader in Genetics . The Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) and British Geological Survey (BGS) also have a presence on campus.
- , on the Mound, which houses the School of Divinity parts of which are also used by the Church Of Scotland .
- just off the Royal Mile , used to be the Moray House Institute for Education until this merged with the University in August 1998 . The University has since extended Moray House's Holyrood site to include a redeveloped and extended major building housing Sports Science, Physical Education and Leisure Management facilities adjacent to its own Sports Institute in the Pleasance.
- , adjoining Holyrood Park to the east, provides accommodation (mainly half board) for the majority of students in their first year. Two of the older houses in Pollock Halls were demolished in 2002 and a new building has been built in their place, leaving a total of ten buildings. Most other students in the city live in private flats in the Marchmont , Newington , Bruntsfield , New Town and Leith areas, although some university-owned flats are also available there.
The University has many famous alumni, including:
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- Gordon Brown , Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Robin Cook , Former Secretary Of State For Foreign And Commonwealth Affairs
- Tessa Jowell , Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport
- Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville , statesman
- Robert Finlay, 1st Viscount Finlay , Lord Chancellor of Great Britain
- Jennie Lee , Minister for the Arts and founder of the Open University
- James Mackay, Baron Mackay Of Clashfern , Lord Chancellor
- David McLetchie , former leader of the Scottish Conservative Party
- Henry Petty-FitzMaurice, 3rd Marquess Of Lansdowne , Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Malcolm Rifkind , Foreign Secretary
- John Russell, 1st Earl Russell , Prime Minister
- David Steel , former leader of the Liberal Party and first Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament
- Jim Wallace , former leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats and Deputy First Minister
- Charles Tupper , Prime Minister Of Canada
- Ike Skelton , U.S. congressman from Missouri
- Mike Synar , U.S. congressman from Oklahoma
- John Witherspoon , signatory, American Declaration of Independence
- Benjamin Rush , signatory, American Declaration of Independence
- Julius Nyerere , first President Of Tanzania
- Yun Po Sun , President Of South Korea
- Hastings Banda , President Of Malawi
- Roger Mark , Labour Party member
- Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu , former president of Malaysian Chinese Association
- Sir Michael Atiyah , mathematician
- Charles Glover Barkla , Nobel laureate in Physics
- Alexander Graham Bell , inventor of the telephone
- Joseph Bell , medicine
- Joseph Black , physicist and chemist
- Sophia Jex-Blake , pioneer of medical education for women in Britain
- Robert Brown , botanist
- Anneila Sargent , astronomer
- Max Born , Nobel laureate in Physics
- David Brewster , scientist
- Euan Orr , Medicine
- J. W. S. Cassels , mathematician
- Ian Clarke , computer scientist
- Charles Darwin , naturalist, author of " The Origin Of Species "
- James Dewar , chemist and physicist
- Peter Doherty , Nobel laureate in Medicine
- Klaus Fuchs , physicist
- Archibald Geikie , geologist
- James Hector , geologist
- Peter Higgs , physicist, Emeritus Professor of Physics and father of the Higgs Boson .
- Robin Hochstrasser , chemist.
- Archie Howie , physicist.
- James Africanus Beale Horton , doctor
- Charles Hutton , mathematician
- James Hutton , the father of modern geology.
- Robert Jameson , naturalist and mineralist
- George Kelly , psychologist
- Sir John Leslie , mathematician and physicist
- Joseph Lister , introduced antiseptics into surgery
- Colin Maclaurin , mathematician
- David MacRitchie , archaeologist
- James Clerk Maxwell , physicist and father of electromagnetics
- Roger Mercer , archaeologist
- Robin Milner , computer scientist
- Augustus De Morgan , mathematician and logician
- Alexander Munro III , anatomists
- Richard Owen , biologist and palaeontologist
- John Playfair , mathematician
- William John Macquorn Rankine , a great contributor for thermodynamics
- Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer , physiologist and neuroscientist
- Robert Sibbald , Professor of Medicine
- James Young Simpson , pioneered the use of chloroform in midwifery
- Peter Guthrie Tait , physicist
- Igor Tamm , Nobel laureate in Physics
- Stephen Tweedie , computer scientist
- John Walker , naturalist
- Edmund Whittaker , mathematician
- William Withering , physician
- Robert Adam , architect
- J. M. Barrie , ''Peter Pan'' author
- Elizabeth Blackadder , artist
- Thomas Brown , philosopher
- Thomas Carlyle , essayist and historian
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , ''Sherlock Holmes'' author
- Adam Ferguson , philosopher and historian
- Robert Garioch , poet and translator
- Oliver Goldsmith , writer and physician
- David Hume , philosopher and historian
- Margaret Iversen , art historian
- Ku Hung-ming , writer and Polyglot
- Sorley MacLean (Somhairle MacGill-Eain), Gaelic poet
- James MacMillan , classical composer
- James Mill , historian and utilitarianist philosopher
- Keith Moxey , art historian
- Peter Roget , author of the first Thesaurus
- Sir Walter Scott , author and poet
- Alexander McCall Smith , author and professor of medical law
- Robert Louis Stevenson , author
- Dugald Stewart , philosopher
- Kerry Stewart , artist
- Joel McIver , author
- Ian Rankin , author
- Stella Rimington , former head of MI5
- Piers Sellers , astronaut
- John Aikin , physician and writer
- Mitch Benn , comedian, songwriter and broadcaster
- John Brown , physician and author
- George Chalmers , antiquarian and political writer
- Henry Thomas Cockburn , judge
- Benjamin Constant , writer and politician
- Daisy Donovan , actor and broadcaster
- Chris Hoy , track cyclist
- Katherine Grainger , Olympic rowing medallist
- Reginald Johnston , diplomat and pedagogue of Pu Yi , the last Emperor of China
- Allan Little , BBC Foreign Correspondent
- A.S. Neill , educationalist
- Gregory Neilson , Publisher and notable Roman Catholic
- George Newlands , theologian
- Mark O'Neil , philanthropist
- Lord Playfair , scientist and parliamentarian
- Stuart MacLennan , prominent businessman and Labour Donor
- Samuel Smiles , author and reformer
- Simon Taylor , International and Professional Rugby player
- Kirsty Wark , broadcaster
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