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Contents
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1History
o 1.1Founding
o 1.2Development
2Organisation
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
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
o 7.2Historical links
8See also
History[edit]
Founding[edit]
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 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]