The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland.
The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university. Edinburgh receives approximately 47,000 applications every year, making it the third most popular university in the UK by volume of applicants. Entrance is intensely competitive, with 12 applications per place in the last admissions cycle.
Regarded as one of the most prestigious universities in the world, the university is ranked 6th and 7th in Europe according to the 2011 QS and Times Higher Education Ranking and 21st in the world by the 2012 QS rankings.
It is a member of both the elite Russell Group, and the League of European Research Universities, a consortium of 21 of Europe's most prominent and renowned research universities. In addition, the University has both historical links and current partnerships with prestigious academic institutions in the United States and Canada, including members of the Ivy League and U15. It has the third largest endowment of any university in the UK.
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. Graduates of the university include some of the major figures of modern history, including the naturalist Charles Darwin, physicist James Clerk Maxwell, philosopher David Hume, mathematician Thomas Bayes, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown, Deputy President of the British Supreme Court Lord Hope, surgeon and pioneer of sterilisation Joseph Lister, signatories of the American declaration of independence 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. The University is also associated with 15 Nobel Prize winners, 1 Abel Prize winner and a host of Olympic gold medallists. It also continues to have links to the British Royal Family, with the Duke of Edinburgh being chancellor from 1953 to 2010, and Princess Anne from 2011.
Read more about University Of Edinburgh: Rankings and Reputation, Campuses, Alumni and Faculty, Historical Links
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