Universities in Scotland

{{Main|History of universities in Scotland}}

File:Henry Wardlaw.jpg, founder of St. Andrews University]]

Until the fifteenth century, Scots who wished to attend university had to travel to England or to the Continent.B. Webster, Medieval Scotland: the Making of an Identity (St. Martin's Press, 1997), {{ISBN|0-333-56761-7}}, pp. 124–5. This situation was transformed by the founding of St John's College, St Andrews in 1418 by Henry Wardlaw, bishop of St. Andrews.P. Daileader, "Local experiences of the Great Western Schism", in J. Rollo-Koster and T. M. Izbicki, eds, A Companion to the Great Western Schism (1378–1417) (BRILL, 2009), {{ISBN|9004162771}}, p. 119. St Salvator's College was added to St. Andrews in 1450. The other great bishoprics followed, with the University of Glasgow being founded in 1451 and King's College, Aberdeen in 1495.J. Durkan, "Universities: to 1720", in M. Lynch, ed., The Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), {{ISBN|0-19-211696-7}}, pp. 610–12. Initially, these institutions were designed for the training of clerics, but they would increasingly be used by laymen. International contacts helped integrate Scotland into a wider European scholarly world and would be one of the most important ways in which the new ideas of Humanism were brought into Scottish intellectual life in the sixteenth century.J. Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community: Scotland, 1470–1625 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991), {{ISBN|0-7486-0276-3}}, pp. 68–72.

St Leonard's College was founded in St Andrews in 1511 and St John's College was re-founded as St Mary's College, St Andrews in 1538, as a Humanist academy for the training of clerics.J. E. A. Dawson, Scotland Re-Formed, 1488–1587 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007), {{ISBN|0748614559}}, p. 187. Public lectures that were established in Edinburgh in the 1540s would eventually become the University of Edinburgh in 1582. A university also briefly existed in Fraserburgh. After the Reformation, Scotland's universities underwent a series of reforms associated with Andrew Melville, who was influenced by the anti-Aristotelian Petrus Ramus. In 1617 King James VI decreed that the town college of Edinburgh should be known as King James's College.J. Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community: Scotland, 1470–1625 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991), {{ISBN|0748602763}}, p. 185. In 1641, the two colleges at Aberdeen were united by decree of Charles I (r. 1625–49), to form the "King Charles University of Aberdeen."D. Ditchburn, "Educating the Elite: Aberdeen and Its Universities”, in E. P. Dennison, D. Ditchburn and M. Lynch, eds, Aberdeen Before 1800: A New History (Dundurn, 2002), {{ISBN|1862321140}}, p. 332. Under the Commonwealth (1652–60), the universities saw an improvement in their funding.J. D. Mackie, B. Lenman and G. Parker, A History of Scotland (London: Penguin, 1991), {{ISBN|0140136495}}, pp. 227–8. After the Restoration there was a purge of Presbyterians from the universities, but most of the intellectual advances of the preceding period were preserved.M. Lynch, Scotland: A New History (Random House, 2011), {{ISBN|1-4464-7563-8}}, p. 262. The colleges at Aberdeen were de-merged. The five Scottish university colleges recovered from the disruption of the civil war years and Restoration with a lecture-based curriculum that was able to embrace economics and science, offering a high-quality liberal education to the sons of the nobility and gentry.R. Anderson, "The history of Scottish Education pre-1980", in T. G. K. Bryce and W. M. Humes, eds, Scottish Education: Post-Devolution (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2nd edn., 2003), {{ISBN|0-7486-1625-X}}, pp. 219–28.

File:Old College of Edinburgh University.JPG, planned by Robert Adam and completed in the nineteenth century]]

In the eighteenth century the universities went from being small and parochial institutions, largely for the training of clergy and lawyers, to major intellectual centres at the forefront of Scottish identity and life, seen as fundamental to democratic principles and the opportunity for social advancement for the talented.R. D. Anderson, "Universities: 2. 1720–1960", in M. Lynch, ed., The Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), {{ISBN|0-19-211696-7}}, pp. 612–14. Chairs of medicine were founded at all the university towns. By the 1740s Edinburgh medical school was the major centre of medicine in Europe and was a leading centre in the Atlantic world.P. Wood, "Science in the Scottish Enlightenment", in A. Broadie, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), {{ISBN|0521003237}}, p. 100. Access to Scottish universities was probably more open than in contemporary England, Germany or France. Attendance was less expensive and the student body more representative of society as a whole.R. A. Houston, Scottish Literacy and the Scottish Identity: Illiteracy and Society in Scotland and Northern England, 1600–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), {{ISBN|0-521-89088-8}}, p. 245. The system was flexible and the curriculum became a modern philosophical and scientific one, in keeping with contemporary needs for improvement and progress. Scotland reaped the intellectual benefits of this system in its contribution to the European Enlightenment.A. Herman, How the Scots Invented the Modern World (London: Crown Publishing Group, 2001), {{ISBN|0-609-80999-7}}. Many of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment were university professors, who developed their ideas in university lectures. Key figures included Francis Hutcheson, Hugh Blair, David Hume, Adam Smith, James Burnett, Adam Ferguson, John Millar and William Robertson, William Cullen, James Anderson, Joseph Black and James Hutton.

File:University of Stirling from Wallace Monument.jpg]]

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Scotland's five university colleges had no entrance exam, students typically entered at ages of 15 or 16, attended for as little as two years, chose which lectures to attend and left without qualifications.R. Anderson, "The history of Scottish education pre-1980", in T. G. K. Bryce and W. M. Humes, eds, Scottish Education: Post-Devolution (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2nd edn., 2003), {{ISBN|0-7486-1625-X}}, p. 224. The curriculum was dominated by divinity and the law and there was a concerted attempt to modernise the curriculum, particularly by introducing degrees in the physical sciences and the need to reform the system to meet the needs of the emerging middle classes and the professions. The result of these reforms was a revitalisation of the Scottish university system, which expanded to 6,254 students by the end of the century and produced leading figures in both the arts and sciences.O. Checkland and S. G. Checkland, Industry and Ethos: Scotland, 1832–1914 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989), {{ISBN|0748601023}}, pp. 147–50. In the first half of the twentieth century Scottish universities fell behind those in England and Europe in terms of participation and investment.C. Harvie, No Gods and Precious Few Heroes: Twentieth-Century Scotland (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 3rd edn., 1998), {{ISBN|0-7486-0999-7}}, pp. 78–9. After the Robbins Report of 1963 there was a rapid expansion in higher education in Scotland. By the end of the decade the number of Scottish Universities had doubled. New universities included the University of Dundee, Strathclyde, Heriot-Watt, and Stirling. From the 1970s the government preferred to expand higher education in the non-university sector and by the late 1980s roughly half of students in higher education were in colleges. In 1992, under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, the distinction between universities and colleges was removed,L. Paterson, "Universities: 3. post-Robbins", in M. Lynch, ed., The Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), {{ISBN|0-19-211696-7}}, pp. 614–5. creating new universities at Abertay, Glasgow Caledonian, Napier, Paisley and Robert Gordon.R. Shaw, "Institutional and curricular structures in the universities of Scotland" in T. G. K. Bryce and W. M. Humes, eds, Scottish Education: Post-Devolution (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2nd edn., 2003), {{ISBN|0-7486-1625-X}}, pp. 664–5.

File:Queen Margaret University main building.jpg]]

There are fifteen universities in Scotland{{cite web |url=http://www.universities-scotland.ac.uk/index.php?page=briefing |title=Briefing |publisher=Universities Scotland |access-date=1 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723071847/http://www.universities-scotland.ac.uk/index.php?page=briefing |archive-date=23 July 2011 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }} and three other institutions of higher education which have the authority to award academic degrees. The University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) gained full university status in 2011, having been created through the federation of 13 colleges and research institutions across the Highlands and Islands, a process that began in 2001.{{cite web|url=http://www.highland.gov.uk/news/article/2239/uhi_is_awarded_taught_degree_awarding_powers |title=UHI is awarded taught degree awarding powers |publisher=Highland Council |date=26 June 2008 |access-date=29 June 2014}}

All Scottish universities have the power to award degrees at all levels: undergraduate, taught postgraduate, and doctoral. Education in Scotland is controlled by the Scottish Government under the terms of the Scotland Act 1998. The minister responsible for higher education is the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, currently Jenny Gilruth of the Scottish National Party.{{cite web |url= http://www.gov.scot/about/who-runs-government/cabinet-and-ministers/cabinet-secretary-education-skills/ |title=Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills |publisher=Scottish Government |access-date=24 June 2020}} University status in Scotland and throughout the United Kingdom today is conferred by the Privy Council which takes advice from the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.{{cite web|url=http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-3708.pdf |title=The Privy Council, Standard Note: SN/PC/3708 |date=5 July 2005 |publisher=The Privy Council |pages=5–6 |access-date=6 July 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111227183508/http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-3708.pdf |archive-date=27 December 2011 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.qaa.ac.uk/assuring-standards-and-quality/daput |title=Degree-awarding powers and university title |publisher=Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) |date=29 November 2012 |access-date=26 July 2014}}

All Scottish universities are public universities and part funded by the Scottish Government (through its Scottish Funding Council{{cite web |url=http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/UniversitiesColleges/16640 |publisher=The Scottish Government |title=Higher Education |access-date=6 July 2010}}) and financial support is provided for Scottish-domiciled students by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. Students ordinarily resident in Scotland do not pay tuition fees for their first undergraduate degree, but tuition fees are charged for those from the rest of the United Kingdom. All students are required to pay tuition fees for postgraduate education (e.g. MSc, PhD), except in certain priority areas funded by the Scottish Government, or if another source of funding can be found (e.g. research council studentship for a PhD). A representative body called Universities Scotland works to promote Scotland's universities, as well as six other higher education institutions.{{cite web |url=http://www.universities-scotland.ac.uk/ |title=Universities Scotland |access-date=7 September 2010}}

The total consolidated annual income for the fifteen Scottish universities for 2020–2021 was £4.38 billion of which £847 million was from research grants and contracts, with an operating surplus of £290.4 million (6.63%). £1.36 billion was received from the Scottish Funding Council via grants and £298.5 million was received from tuition fees of Home-domiciled students, defined as Scotland-domiciled students and European Union-domiciled students who began their studies prior to 2021–2022.{{cite web |title=EU Residence Guide - Tuition Fee Status of Students Starting Studies in 2021-22 |url=https://www.saas.gov.uk/files/592/eu-exit-guidance-uni-college.pdf |website=saas.gov.uk |publisher=Student Awards Agency Scotland |access-date=22 February 2023}} The table below is a record of each Scottish university's financial data for the 2020–2021 financial year as recorded by the Higher Education Statistics Agency:{{cite web |title=What is the income of HE providers? |url=https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/finances/income |website=hesa.ac.uk |publisher=Higher Education Statistics Agency |access-date=22 February 2023}}

File:St Andrews gowns.jpg

In the 2022–23 academic year, 292,240 students studied at universities or institutes of higher education in Scotland, 228,005 of whom were full-time, 59.0% were female and 40.4% male. 59.5% of students were domiciled in Scotland, 11.5% from the rest of the United Kingdom, and the remaining 28.7% being international students (4.5% from the European Union). Of all these, approximately 198,745 were studying at undergraduate level, 79,395 for a taught postgraduate degree (primarily a master's degree) and 14,105 for a postgraduate research degree (primarily PhD).{{cite web|url=https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/where-study#provider|title=Where do HE students study?: Students by HE provider|work=HESA|at=HE student enrolments by HE provider|access-date=12 September 2024}} The three largest universities by enrolment were the Universities of Glasgow (39,755 students), Edinburgh (39,110 students) and Strathclyde (24,860 students).

The Scottish Universities Summer School in Physics (SUSSP) was established in 1960 by the four ancient Scottish Universities (Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St. Andrews) to contribute to the dissemination of advanced knowledge in physics and the formation of contacts among scientists from different countries through the setting up of a series of annual summer schools of the highest international standard.{{cite web | url=http://www.sussp.ac.uk/ | title=Scottish Universities Summer Schools in Physics | date=19 March 2014 | access-date=13 November 2014 | author=Walker, Alan}} {{as of|2014}} it had increased to include Dundee, Glasgow Caledonian, Heriot-Watt, Paisley, and Strathclyde.

{{See also|Rankings of universities in the United Kingdom}}

In the 2025 national league table rankings, five of the top twenty in both of The Guardian University Guide and in The Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide were Scottish universities. In the 2025 global rankings, three Scottish universities featured in the world's top 200 universities in both of the QS and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

In terms of rankings there are four distinctive clusters of higher and lower status universities in the UK: Oxbridge comprising cluster one; a second cluster containing the remaining 22 Russell Group universities together with 17 other old universities, including Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, St Andrews, Stirling and Strathclyde; a third cluster containing 13 old universities and 54 new universities including the remaining Scottish universities; and a fourth cluster contains 19 new universities but no Scottish universities.Vikki Bolivera, [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03054985.2015.1082905 "Are there distinctive clusters of higher and lower status universities in the UK?"], Oxford Review of Education, 41 (5), 2015, pp. 608–27, DOI 10.1080/03054985.2015.1082905.

The below lists the outcome of the latest Research Excellence Framework undertaken in 2021 (the next REF is scheduled for 2028) by the four UK higher education funding bodies. The quality of research was rated 4* (world leading), 3* (internationally excellent), 2* (recognised internationally), 1* (recognised nationally) and unclassified. GPA measures the quality of research and Research Power is calculated by the GPA score of a university multiplied by the full-time equivalent number of researchers submitted. The rankings are out of 129 institutions as measured by output:{{cite web |title=REF 2021 Outputs |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/content/ref2021outputs |publisher=Times Higher Education |access-date=2 May 2022}}

• List of universities in Scotland
• List of universities in the United Kingdom
• Student wings of political parties in Scotland
• Universities in the United Kingdom

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Scottish education|state=expanded}}

{{Universities in Scotland}}