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The University of Edinburgh (abbreviated as Edin.

in post-nominals), founded in 1582,[1] is the


sixth oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's ancient universities. The
university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city of Edinburgh, with many of the buildings in the
historic Old Town belonging to the university.[5]
The University of Edinburgh was ranked 17th and 21st in the world by the 201415 and 2015-16 QS
rankings. It is now ranked 19th in the world according to 2016-17 QS Rankings. [6][7] The Research
Excellence Framework, a research ranking used by the UK government to determine future research
funding, ranked Edinburgh 4th in the UK for research power,[8] with Computer Science and
Informatics ranking 1st in the UK. It is ranked 16th in the world in arts and humanities by the 2015
16 Times Higher Education Ranking.[9] It is ranked the 23rd most employable university in the world
by the 2015 Global Employability University Ranking.[10] It is ranked as the 6th best university in
Europe by the U.S. News' Best Global Universities Ranking.[11] It is a member of both the Russell
Group, and the League of European Research Universities, a consortium of 21 research universities
in Europe.[12] It has the third largest endowment of any university in the United Kingdom, after the
universities of Cambridge and Oxford.
The university played an important role in leading Edinburgh to its reputation as a chief intellectual
centre during the Age of Enlightenment, and helped give the city the nickname of the Athens of the
North. Alumni of the university include some of the major figures of modern history, including
physicist James Clerk Maxwell, naturalist Charles Darwin, philosopher David Hume,
mathematician Thomas Bayes, surgeon Joseph Lister, signatories of the American declaration of
independence James Wilson, John Witherspoon and Benjamin Rush, inventor Alexander Graham
Bell, first president of Tanzania Julius Nyerere, and a host of famous authors such as Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, J.M. Barrie and Sir Walter Scott. Associated people
include 21 Nobel Prize winners, 2 Turing Award winners, 1 Abel Prize winner, 1 Fields Medal winner,
2 Pulitzer Prize winner, 3 Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, 2 currently-sitting UK Supreme
Court Justices, and several Olympic gold medallists.[13] It continues to have links to the British Royal
Family, having had the Duke of Edinburgh as its Chancellor from 1953 to 2010 and Princess
Anne since 2011.[14]
Edinburgh receives approximately 50,000 applications every year, making it the fourth most popular
university in the UK by volume of applicants.[15] After St Andrews, it is the most difficult university to
gain admission into in Scotland, and 9th overall in the UK.[16]

Contents
[hide]

1History

o 1.1Founding

o 1.2Development

2Organisation

o 2.1Colleges and schools

2.1.1Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

2.1.2Medicine and Veterinary Medicine


2.1.3Science and Engineering

3Campuses

o 3.1Central Area

o 3.2King's Buildings

o 3.3Pollock Halls

o 3.4Little France

o 3.5Easter Bush

o 3.6Moray House

4Academic profile

o 4.1Admissions

o 4.2Rankings and reputation

5Student life

o 5.1Students' association

o 5.2Performing arts

o 5.3Media

o 5.4Sport

o 5.5Student activism

o 5.6Student Co-operatives

6Library

7Notable alumni and academic staff

o 7.1Heads of state and government

o 7.2Historical links

8See also

9Notes and references


10External links

History[edit]

King James's College, c. 1647

Founding[edit]

The university's Old College

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.[17] 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. [1][18] This was an
unusual move at the time, as most universities were established through Papal bulls.[19] Established
as the "Tounis College", it opened its doors to students in October 1583. [1] Instruction began under
the charge of another St Andrews graduate Robert Rollock.[17] It was the fourth Scottish university in
a period when the much more populous and richer 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[edit]
You are now in a place where the best courses upon earth are within your reach... Such an opportunity you will
never again have. I would therefore strongly press on you to fix no other limit to your stay in Edinborough than your
having got thro this whole course. The omission of any one part of it will be an affliction & loss to you as long as you

live. "
~ Thomas Jefferson writing to his son-in-law Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr. in 1786.[20]

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 have 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 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 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 Robert Rowand
Anderson was commissioned to design new Medical School premises in 1875. The medical school
was more or less built to his design and was completed by the addition of the McEwan Hall in the
1880s.

The university's New College building

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.
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 Concert 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.

The building that houses the university's Institute of Geography, was once part of the Royal Infirmary

The two oldest schools law and divinity are both well-esteemed, with law being based in Old
College and divinity in New College on the Mound. Students at the university are represented
by Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA), which consists of the Students'
Representative Council (SRC), founded in 1884 by Robert Fitzroy Bell, the Edinburgh University
Union (EUU) which was founded in 1889. They are also represented by the Edinburgh University
Sports Union (EUSU) which was founded in 1866.
The 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.
[21]
(The first medical school in the United States was founded at the University of Pennsylvania in
1765 by Edinburgh alumni John Morgan and William Shippen). It is ranked 1st in the UK's most
recent RAE. The Edinburgh Seven, the first group of matriculated undergraduate female students at
any British university, 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. In 2015 the Edinburgh Seven were
commemorated with a plaque at the University of Edinburgh, as part of the Historic Scotland
Commemorative Plaques Scheme.[22]

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