With our rich history, noted alumni and distinguished scholars, we have much to be proud of in our many centuries as a world-renowned university. From Nobel laureates and Olympic champions to space explorers and prime ministers, the University of Edinburgh has been influencing history since it opened the gates to its first students in 1583. Following the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, the University was positioned at the forefront of academia and critical thinking. Due to the determination and perseverance of a group of Edinburgh intellectuals, established facts about the world were being boldly and consistently challenged.Amid this group was David Hume, philosopher, economist and essayist known for his philosophical skepticism and empiricism; Joseph Black, the chemist behind the discovery of latent heat and carbon dioxide; and James Hutton, the ‘Father of Modern Geology’.We are the home of Britain’s oldest literary awards, the James Tait Black Prizes and Dolly the sheep, the first animal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell. It was also here at the University of Edinburgh that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was inspired to create his notorious character, Sherlock Holmes and James Young Simpson pioneered anaesthetics through his discovery of the properties of chloroform. More recently, theoretical physicist and Professor Emeritus Peter Higgs was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his 1964 prediction of the Higgs Boson. Through the many achievements of its staff and students, the University has continued to present cutting-edge research, inspirational teaching and innovative thinking as its central ethos, attracting some of the greatest minds from around the globe.The University of Edinburgh (Scots: University o Edinburgh, Scottish Gaelic: Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as Edin. in post-nominals) is a public research university in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1582 and officially opened in 1583, it is one of Scotland's four ancient universities and the sixth-oldest university in continuous operation in the English-speaking world. The university played an important role in Edinburgh becoming a chief intellectual centre during the Scottish Enlightenment and contributed to the city being nicknamed the "Athens of the North". The university is a member of several associations of research-intensive universities, including the Coimbra Group, League of European Research Universities, Russell Group, Una Europa, and Universitas 21. In the fiscal year ending 31 July 2020, it had a total income of £1,112.5 million, of which £296.1 million was from research grants and contracts, with the third-largest endowment in the UK, behind only Cambridge and Oxford. The university has five main campuses in the city of Edinburgh, which include many buildings of historical and architectural significance such as those in the Old Town.Edinburgh receives over 60,000 undergraduate applications per year, making it the second-most popular university in the UK by volume of applications. It is the eighth-largest university in the UK by enrolment, with 35,375 students in 2019/20.[4] Edinburgh had the seventh-highest average UCAS points amongst British universities for new entrants in 2019. The university continues to have links to the British royal family, having had Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh as its Chancellor from 1953 to 2010 and Anne, Princess Royal since March 2011. The alumni of the university include some of the major figures of modern history. Inventor Alexander Graham Bell, naturalist Charles Darwin, philosopher David Hume, and physicist James Clerk Maxwell studied at Edinburgh, as did writers such as Sir J. M. Barrie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Louis Stevenson. The university counts several heads of state and government amongst its graduates, including three British Prime Ministers. Three Supreme Court Justices of the UK were educated at Edinburgh, as were several Olympic gold medallists. As of October 2021, 19 Nobel Prize laureates, three Turing Award winners, two Pulitzer Prize winners, and an Abel Prize laureate and Fields Medalist have been affiliated with Edinburgh as alumni or academic staff.Founded by the city of Edinburgh in 1583, we were the first true civic university in the UK and one of the four ancient universities of Scotland. Our predecessors played a central role in establishing Edinburgh as the chief intellectual centre of the Age of Enlightenment. Our collegial and collaborative approach established entirely new subject areas from geology to epigenetics. Since that time, we have made significant and sustained contributions to a huge range of societal challenges. We have worked to tackle malaria and diabetes and helped improve youth justice. We have contributed to work on global sustainable development and the use of solar power to give displaced communities in camps access to mobile communication. Members of our community go on to benefit society as engineers, teachers, social entrepreneurs, artists, medics and agents of change. We are the home of Britain’s oldest literary awards, the James Tait Black Prizes, and of Dolly the sheep. Chrystal Macmillan, suffragist and founder of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, was our first female science graduate in 1896.In 2013, our Emeritus Professor, theoretical physicist Peter Higgs, was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his 1964 prediction of the Higgs Boson. Our world is faced with a variety of significant and complex challenges, from rising inequality and the mass displacement of people, to climate change and the emergence of artificial intelligence. Established ways of thinking must be challenged, and as a university we are reflecting on what needs to change (and what does not) as we move forward. To respond to these challenges and do justice to future generations, we need to adapt and work in new ways. We will work through new partnerships with local authorities, third sector, and business, both nationally and internationally. This is a strategy for the next decade. In a fast-changing world it is difficult to plan much further ahead than that. By focusing on our values, on the civic purpose for which we were founded, and the changes we want to deliver, we can provide a rationale for the University’s future, and financial sustainability. We have more than 400 years of excellence behind us. Working together, we can make the next 400 years even better.Our visionOur graduates, and the knowledge we discover with our partners, make the world a better place.Our purposeAs a world-leading research-intensive University, we are here to address tomorrow’s greatest challenges. Between now and 2030 we will do that with a values-led approach to teaching, research and innovation, and through the strength of our relationships, both locally and globally.
In the pursuit of our vision to help the students find the right courses and institutions based on their learning inclination and caliber. Dive right in to know more about the institutions that are best suited for you, all at one place.
Watch the videos to learn about the student life-cycle and the teaching environment at the University.
