UNIVERSITY of
EDINBURGH
Edinburgh, SCT
Est. 1583
Ranking
#20
In the World
QS ranking
Est.
1907
Students
36,000
Other Rankings
- #30 in the world by 2020 Times Higher Education ranking.
#8 Arts and Humanities by 2020 USnews subject ranking.
Website
"
Nec temere, nec timide
"
About
The University of Edinburgh (abbreviated as Edin. in post-nominals), founded in 1582, is the sixth oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland’s ancient universities. The university has five main campuses in the city of Edinburgh, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university. The university played an important role in leading Edinburgh to its reputation as a chief intellectual centre during the Age of Enlightenment, contributing to the city being nicknamed the “Athens of the North”.
The university is a member of both the Russell Group, and the League of European Research Universities, a consortium of 21 research universities in Europe. It has the third largest endowment of any university in the United Kingdom, after the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. The annual income of the institution for 2018–19 was £1,080.6 million of which £285.7 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £1,211.9 million.
History
Founding
Founded by the Edinburgh Town Council, the university began life as a college of law using part of a legacy left by a graduate of the University of St Andrews, Bishop Robert Reid of St Magnus Cathedral, Orkney. Through efforts by the Town Council and Ministers of the City the institution broadened in scope and became formally established as a college by a Royal Charter, granted by King James VI of Scotland on 14 April 1582 after the petitioning of the Council. This was unprecedented in newly Presbyterian Scotland, as older universities in Scotland had been established through Papal bulls. Established as the “Tounis College”, it opened its doors to students in October 1583. Instruction began under the charge of another St Andrews graduate Robert Rollock. It was the fourth Scottish university in a period when the richer and much more populous England had only two. It was renamed King James’s College in 1617. By the 18th century, the university was a leading centre of the Scottish Enlightenment.
Development
17th century
In 1762, Reverend Hugh Blair was appointed by King George III as the first Regius Professor of Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres. This formalised literature as a subject at the university and the foundation of the English Literature department, making Edinburgh the oldest centre of literary education in Britain.
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 existed in a hotchpotch of buildings from its establishment until the early 19th century. The university’s first custom-built building was the Old College, now Edinburgh Law School, 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 the body of William Burke was taken after he had been hanged.
Towards the end of the 19th century, Old College was becoming overcrowded and Sir Robert Rowand Anderson was commissioned to design new Medical School premises in 1875. Initially the design incorporated a Graduation Hall, but this was seen as too ambitious. A separate building was constructed for the purpose, the McEwan Hall, also designed by Anderson, after funds were donated by the brewer and politician Sir William McEwan in 1894. It was presented to the University in 1897.
New College was originally opened in 1846 as a Free Church of Scotland college, later of the United Free Church of Scotland. Since the 1930s it has been the home of the School of Divinity. Prior to the 1929 reunion of the Church of Scotland, candidates for the ministry in the United Free Church studied at New College, whilst candidates for the old Church of Scotland studied in the Divinity Faculty of the University of Edinburgh. During the 1930s the two institutions came together, sharing the New College site on The Mound.
Development (cont.)
–
An Edinburgh Students’ Representative Council (SRC) was founded in 1884 by student Robert Fitzroy Bell. In 1889, the SRC voted to establish a union (the Edinburgh University Union (EUU)), to be housed in Teviot Row House. The Edinburgh University Sports Union (EUSU) which was founded in 1866. The Edinburgh University Women’s Union was founded in 1906. On 1 July 1973 the SRC, the EUU and the Chambers Street Union merged to form Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA).
Edinburgh’s medical school is renowned throughout the world. It was widely considered the best medical school in the English-speaking world throughout the 18th century and first half of the 19th century.
The Edinburgh Seven were the first group of matriculated undergraduate female students at any British university. Led by Sophia Jex-Blake they began studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869. Although they were unsuccessful in their struggle to graduate and qualify as doctors, their campaign gained national attention and won them many supporters including Charles Darwin. It put the rights of women to a University education on the national political agenda which eventually resulted in legislation to ensure women could study at University in 1877. The University of Edinburgh admitted women to graduate in medicine in 1894. In 2015, the Edinburgh Seven were commemorated with a plaque at the University of Edinburgh.
In October 1945, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Imperial to commemorate the centenary of the Royal College of Chemistry, which was the oldest of the institutions that united to form Imperial College. “Commemoration Day”, named after this visit, is held every October as the university’s main graduation ceremony. The college also acquired a biology field station at Silwood Park near Ascot, Berkshire in 1947.
The Polish School of Medicine was established in 1941 as “a wartime testament to this spirit of enlightenment”. Students were to be those drawn from the Polish army to Britain and were taught in Polish. When the school was closed in 1949, 336 students had matriculated, of which 227 students graduated with the equivalent of an MBChB. A total of 19 doctors obtained a doctorate or MD. A bronze plaque commemorating the existence of the Polish School of Medicine is located in the Quadrangle of the Medical School in Teviot Place.
The Little France campus, including the Chancellor’s Building, was opened on 12 August 2002 by the Duke of Edinburgh. The campus houses the Medical School on the site of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.
2000 to present
Present
The Edinburgh Cowgate Fire of December 2002 destroyed a number of university buildings, including some 3,000 m² (30,000 sq ft.) of the School of Informatics at 80 South Bridge. This was replaced with the Informatics Forum on the central campus, completed in July 2008.
The Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre (ECRC) was opened in 2002 by The Princess Royal on the Western General Hospital site. In 2007, the MRC Human Genetics Unit formed a partnership with the Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine and the Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre to create the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine (IGMM).
The Euan MacDonald Centre was established in 2007 as a research centre for motor neuron disease (MND). The centre was part funded by a donation from Scottish entrepreneur Euan MacDonald and his father Donald. On 1 August 2011, the Edinburgh College of Art (founded in 1760) merged with the university’s School of Arts, Culture and Environment.
The Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine, a stem cell research centre dedicated to the development of regenerative treatments, was opened by the Anne, Princess Royal on 28 May 2012. It is home to biologists and clinical academics from the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CRM), and applied scientists working with the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service and Roslin Cells. On 25 August 2014, the centre reported on the first working organ, a thymus, grown from scratch inside an animal.
In 2018, the University of Edinburgh was a signatory in the landmark £1.3bn Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal, with the UK and Scottish governments, six local authorities and all universities and colleges in the region. The University committed to deliver a range of economic benefits to the region through the Data-Driven Innovation initiative. In conjunction with Heriot-Watt University, the initiative created four innovation hubs – the Bayes Centre, Usher Institute, Edinburgh Futures Institute, Easter Bush campus, and one based at Heriot-Watt, the National Robotarium. The deal also included creation of the Edinburgh International Data Facility, which performs high-speed data processing in a secure environment.
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Campus
The university now has five main sites in Edinburgh: Central, King’s Buildings, BioQuarter, Western General, Easter Bush.
The university is responsible for a number of historic and modern buildings across the city, including the Scotland’s oldest purpose-built concert hall, and the second oldest in use in the British Isles, St Cecilia’s Hall; Teviot Row House, which is the oldest purpose built student union building in the world; and the restored 17th-century Mylne’s Court student residence which stands at the head of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.
Notable Alumni
Joseph Black
Scottish physicist and chemist, known for his discoveries of magnesium, latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide.
University of Edinburgh
Sir James Dewar
Scottish chemist and physicist; known for the vacuum flask.
University of Edinburgh
David Hume
Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist; known for empiricism, skepticism; and naturalism.
University of Edinburgh
Adam Ferguson
Scottish philosopher and historian of the Scottish Enlightenment.
University of Edinburgh
FAIR USE STATEMENT
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Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Edinburgh
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/
https://www.topuniversities.com/