爱丁堡大学

爱丁堡大学(The University of Edinburgh,)简称"爱大""Edin."，创建于1583年，坐落于英国苏格兰首府爱丁堡市，是一所综合性研究型大学、七所古典大学之一，属于罗素大学集团、科英布拉集团、欧洲研究型大学联盟、同一个欧洲大学联盟和Universitas 21等。

爱丁堡大学在欧洲启蒙时代具有极为重要的领导地位，使爱丁堡市成为苏格兰启蒙运动的中心 ，享有"北方雅典"之盛名。在四百多年的历史中，爱丁堡大学培养了众多对人类社会发展做出突出贡献的人物。

爱丁堡大学位列2023QS世界大学排名第15位 ，2022U.S. News世界大学排名第32位 ，2022THE世界大学排名第30位 ，2021软科世界大学学术排名第38位 。

爱丁堡大学（University of Edinburgh）位于苏格兰的首府爱丁堡市，是成立于1583年的公立大学，同时是英国第6古老的大学。爱丁堡大学每年收到约四万七千份申请，为全英第3受欢迎的大学。根据2011年QS世界大学排名，爱丁堡大学被列为苏格兰首位，英国第5位，世界排名第20位，身为罗素集团及欧洲研究型大学联盟成员。

爱丁堡大学创建于1583年，是英国六所古老且面积广阔的大学之一，也是在各种全球大学排行榜上多次名列全球前20强的大学。爱丁堡大学与牛津、剑桥一起，是名列罗素教育集团的多科性综合大学。爱丁堡大学是罗素大学集团、科英布拉集团（The Coimbra Group）和Universitas 21（大学的国际性协会）的创建成员之一，也是欧洲研究型大学联盟（LERU）成员，它在教学和科研方面都享有国际声誉。

爱丁堡大学在欧洲启蒙时代具有相当重要的领导地位，使爱丁堡市成为了当时的启蒙中心之一，享有“北方雅典”之盛名。有名的毕业生包括：自然学家查尔斯·达尔文、物理学家詹姆斯·克拉克·麦克斯韦、哲学家大卫·休谟、数学家托马斯·贝叶斯、作家阿瑟·柯南·道尔、发明家亚历山大·格拉汉姆·贝尔、英国前首相戈登·布朗、美国独立宣言签署人约翰·威瑟斯庞及本杰明·拉什。爱丁堡大学产生过十五名诺贝尔奖获得者，一名阿贝尔奖获奖人。其与英国皇室保有良好关系，菲利普亲王在1953到2010年担任校监（荣誉校长），2010年至今则由长公主安妮公主就任。

爱丁堡大学既珍惜往日的荣誉，又在今天不断地追求、创新，以其出色而多样的教学与研究而享誉世界。爱丁堡大学分旧学院和新学院两部分。旧学院是现法律与欧洲研究所学院所在地。附近有McEwan大厅，是维多利亚农业丰收的象征建筑，内设有2200个座位，专门为举行毕业典礼及一些大型正式的洽谈会所设。新学院位于蒙德山顶，俯瞰王子大街，神学院位于该地。该大学有3个主要大学活动建筑场所：乔治广场区（旧学院）、国王大厦和波洛克大厅。旧学院的一些原始建筑可追溯到1776年，但大多数建筑是现代的。乔治广场区还有爱丁堡大学的主图书馆；国王大厦位于乔治广场以南? ??3公里处，大多数科学和工程学院位于该区，如电子工程学院、生态学院、工程信息学院以及一些政府科研机构（苏格兰农业大学）。这些建筑多数首建于1920至1930年，五、六十年代扩建，并增设了气象学系、物理天文系以及大学计算机服务设施。波洛克大厅由10个独立的现代大厅组成，可供近2000名学生居住。

爱丁堡大学的教研人员总数近3000人，全校分设三大学院（College）并下设22个小学院（School），三大学院分别是：人文与社会科学院、科学与工程学院、医学与兽医学院。在一次开展的评估活动中，94%的教职员工递交了研究报告，其中将近90%的员工所在的系被评为4级、5级或者5*级（低级别为1级，高级别为5*级）。爱丁堡大学的26个专业中有24各个专业被外部评估机构评为“优秀”或者“极为满意”。在新的全英研究调查评测（RAE:2008），爱丁堡名列英国大学第5。爱丁堡大学是英国极具规模的院校之一，在校学生总数达到17000人，其中16%为来自100多国的外国留学生。1951年和1998年，威廉狄克兽医学院和莫雷教育学院先后与爱丁堡大学合并，进一步扩大了爱丁堡大学的规模。爱丁堡大学的课程专业设置齐全，鼓励学生跨学科学习，并授予联合学位。研究生占学生总数的20%以上。爱丁堡大学还开设外延式课程，使学生能够在国外学习一年非学位课程。该校每年9月份开学，分春、秋、夏三个学期。每学期10周，圣诞节有3周假期，复活节有4周假期。

爱丁堡大学，以其出色而多样化的教学与研究而享誉世界。学校位于苏格兰北部爱丁堡市中心。爱丁堡大学下设9个学院，包括：科学与工程学院、社会科学学院、艺术学院、法学院、教育学院、医学院、兽医学院、神学院以及音乐学院。

The University of Edinburgh (Scots: University o Edinburgh, Scottish Gaelic: Oilthigh Dhùn ?ideann; 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".

Edinburgh 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 2021, it had a total income of ?1,175.6 million, of which ?324.0 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. 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.

History

Early history

In 1557, Bishop Robert Reid of St Magnus Cathedral on Orkney made a will containing an endowment of 8,000 merks to build a college in Edinburgh. Unusually for his time, Reid's vision included the teaching of rhetoric and poetry, alongside more traditional subjects such as philosophy. However, the bequest was delayed by more than 25 years due to the religious revolution that led to the Reformation Parliament of 1560. The plans were revived in the late 1570s through efforts by the Edinburgh Town Council, first minister of Edinburgh James Lawson, and Lord Provost William Little. When Reid's descendants were unwilling to pay out the sum, the town council petitioned King James VI and his Privy Council. The King brokered a monetary compromise and granted a royal charter on 14 April 1582, empowering the town council to create a college of higher education. A college established by secular authorities was unprecedented in newly Presbyterian Scotland, as all previous Scottish universities had been founded through papal bulls. Notably, Edinburgh was the fourth Scottish university in a period when the richer and more populous England had only two.

Named Tounis College (Town's College), the university opened its doors to students on 14 October 1583, with an attendance of 80–90. At the time, the college mainly covered liberal arts and divinity. Instruction began under the charge of a graduate from the University of St Andrews, theologian Robert Rollock, who first served as Regent, and from 1586 as principal of the college. Init ially Rollock was the sole instructor for first-year students, and he was expected to tutor the 1583 intake for all four years of their degree in every subject. The first cohort finished their studies in 1587, and 47 students graduated (or 'laureated') with an M.A. degree. When King James VI visited Scotland in 1617, he held a disputation with the college's professors, after which he decreed that it should henceforth be called the "Colledge of King James". The university was known as both Tounis College and King James' College until it gradually assumed the name of the University of Edinburgh during the 17th century.

After the deposition of King James II and VII during the Glorious Revolution in 1688, the Parliament of Scotland passed legislation designed to root out Jacobite sympathisers amongst university staff. In Edinburgh, this led to the dismissal of Principal Alexander Monro and several professors and regents after a government visitation in 1690. The university was subsequently led by Principal Gilbert Rule, one of the inquisitors on the visitation committee.

18th and 19th century

The late 17th and early 18th centuries were marked by a power struggle between the university and town council, which had ultimate authority over staff appointments, curricula, and examinations. After a series of challenges by the university, the conflict culminated in the council seizing the college records in 1704. Relations were only gradually repaired over the next 150 years and suffered repeated setbacks.

The university expanded by founding a Faculty of Law in 1707, a Faculty of Arts in 1708, and a Faculty of Medicine in 1726. In 1762, Reverend Hugh Blair was appointed by King George III as the first Regius Professor of Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres. This formalised literature as a subject and marks the foundation of the English Literature department, making Edinburgh the oldest centre of literary education in Britain.

During the 18th century, the university was at the centre of the Scottish Enlightenment. The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment fell on especially fertile ground in Edinburgh because of the university's democratic and secular origin; its organization as a single entity instead of loosely connected colleges, which encouraged academic exchange; its adoption of the more flexible Dutch model of professorship, rather than having student cohorts taught by a single regent; and the lack of land endowments as its source of income, which meant its faculty operated in a more competitive environment. Between 1750 and 1800, this system produced and attracted key Enlightenment figures such as chemist Joseph Black, economist Adam Smith, historian William Robertson, philosophers David Hume and Dugald Stewart, physician William Cullen, and early sociologist Adam Ferguson, many of which taught concurrently. By the time the Royal Society of Edinburgh was founded in 1783, the university was regarded as one of the world's preeminent scientific institutions, and Voltaire called Edinburgh a "hotbed of genius" as a result. Benjamin Franklin believed that the university possessed "a set of as truly great men, Professors of the Several Branches of Knowledge, as have ever appeared in any Age or Country". Thomas Jefferson felt that as far as science was concerned, "no place in the world can pretend to a competition with Edinburgh".

The South Bridge Act 1785 was passed in the House of Commons with the intention of using South Bridge as a location for the university, which had existed in a hotchpotch of buildings since its establishment. The site was used to construct Old College, the university's first custom-built building, by architect William Henry Playfair to plans by Robert Adam. During the 18th century, the university developed a particular forte in teaching anatomy and the developing science of surgery, and it was considered one of the best medical schools in the English-speaking world. Bodies to be used for dissection were brought to the university's Anatomy Theatre through a secret tunnel from a nearby house (today's College Wynd student accommodation), which was also used by murderers Burke and Hare to deliver the corpses of their victims during the 1820s.

After 275 years of governance by the town council, the Universities (Scotland) Act 1858 gave the university full authority over its own affairs. The act established governing bodies including a university court and a general council, and redefined the roles of key officials like the chancellor, rector, and principal.

The Edinburgh Seven were the first group of matriculated undergraduate female students at any British university. Led by Sophia Jex-Blake, they began studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869. Although the university blocked them from graduating and qualifying as doctors, their campaign gained national attention and won them many supporters, including Charles Darwin. Their efforts put the rights of women to higher education on the national political agenda, which eventually resulted in legislation allowing women to study at all Scottish universities in 1889. The university admitted women to graduate in medicine in 1893. In 2015, the Edinburgh Seven were commemorated with a plaque at the university, and in 2019 they were posthumously awarded with medical degrees.

Towards the end of the 19th century, Old College was becoming overcrowded. After a bequest from Sir David Baxter, the university started planning new buildings in earnest. Sir Robert Rowand Anderson won the public architectural competition and was commissioned to design new premises for the Medical School in 1877. Initially, the design incorporated a campanile and a hall for examination and graduation, but this was seen as too ambitious. The new Medical School opened in 1884, but the building was not completed until 1888. After funds were donated by politician and brewer William McEwan in 1894, a sep arate graduation building was constructed after all, also designed by Anderson. The resulting McEwan Hall on Bristo Square was presented to the university in 1897.

The Students' Representative Council (SRC) was founded in 1884 by student Robert Fitzroy Bell. In 1889, the SRC voted to establish Edinburgh University Union (EUU), to be housed in Teviot Row House on Bristo Square. Edinburgh University Sports Union (EUSU) was founded in 1866, and Edinburgh University Women's Union (renamed the Chambers Street Union in 1964) in October 1905. The SRC, EUU and Chambers Street Union merged to form Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA) on 1 July 1973.

20th century

During World War I, the Science and Medicine buildings had suffered from a lack of repairs or upgrades, which was exacerbated by an influx of students after the end of the war. In 1919, the university bought the land of West Mains Farm in the south of the city for the development of a new satellite campus specialising in the sciences. On 6 July 1920, King George V laid the foundation of the first new building (now called the Joseph Black Building), housing the Department of Chemistry. The campus was named King's Buildings in honour of George V.

New College on The Mound was originally opened in 1846 as a Free Church of Scotland college, later of the United Free Church of Scotland. Since the 1930s it has been the home of the School of Divinity. Prior to the 1929 reunion of the Church of Scotland, candidates for the ministry in the United Free Church studied at New College, whilst candidates for the Church of Scotland studied in the university's Faculty of Divinity. In 1935 the two institutions merged, with all operations moved to the New College site in Old Town. This freed up Old College for Edinburgh Law School.

The Polish School of Medicine was established in 1941 as a wartime academic initiative. While it was originally intended for students and doctors in the Polish Armed Forces in the West, civilians were also allowed to take the courses, which were taught in Polish and awarded Polish medical degrees. When the school was closed in 1949, 336 students had matriculated, of which 227 students graduated with the equivalent of an MBChB and a total of 19 doctors obtained a doctorate or MD. A bronze plaque commemorating the Polish School of Medicine is located in the Quadrangle of the old Medical School in Teviot Place.

On 10 May 1951, the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College, founded in 1823 by William Dick, was reconstituted as the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and officially became part of the university. It achieved full faculty status as Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in 1964.

By the end of the 1950s, there were around 7,000 students matriculating annually, more than doubling the numbers from the turn of the century. The university addressed this partially through the redevelopment of George Square, demolishing much of the area's historic houses and erecting modern buildings such as 40 George Square, Appleton Tower and the Main Library.

On 1 August 1998, the Moray House Institute of Education, founded in 1848, merged with the University of Edinburgh, becoming its Faculty of Education. Following the internal restructuring of the university in 2002, Moray House became known as the Moray House School of Education. It was renamed the Moray House School of Education and Sport in August 2019.

21st century

In the 1990s it became apparent that the old Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh buildings in Lauriston Place were no longer adequate for a modern teaching hospital. Donald Dewar, the Scottish Secretary at the time, authorized a joint project between private finance, local authorities, and the university to create a modern hospital and medical campus in the Little France area of Edinburgh. The new campus was named the BioQuarter. The Chancellor's Building was opened on 12 August 2002 by Prince Philip, housing the new Edinburgh Medical School alongside the new Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. In 2007, the campus saw the addition of the Euan MacDonald Centre as a research centre for motor neuron diseases, which was part-funded by Scottish entrepreneur Euan MacDonald and his father Donald. In August 2010, author J. K. Rowling provided ?10 million in funding to create the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, which was officially opened in October 2013. The Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CRM) is a stem cell research centre dedicated to the development of regenerative treatments, which was opened in 2012. CRM is also home to applied scientists working with the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) and Roslin Cells.

In December 2002, the Edinburgh Cowgate Fire destroyed a number of university build ings, including some 3,000 m2 of the School of Informatics at 80 South Bridge. This was replaced with the Informatics Forum on Bristo Square, completed in July 2008. Also in 2002, the Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre (ECRC) was opened on the Western General Hospital site. In 2007, the MRC Human Genetics Unit formed a partnership with the Centre for Genomic & Experimental Medicine and the ECRC to create the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine (renamed the Institute of Genetics and Cancer in 2021) on the same site.

In April 2008, the Roslin Institute – an animal sciences research centre known for cloning Dolly the sheep – became part of the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies. In 2011, the school moved into a new ?60 million building on the Easter Bush campus, which now houses research and teaching facilities, and a hospital for small and farm animals.

Edinburgh College of Art, founded in 1760, formally merged with the university's School of Arts, Culture and Environment on 1 August 2011. In 2014, the Zhejiang University-University of Edinburgh Institute (ZJE) was founded as an international joint institute offering degrees in biomedical sciences, taught in English. The campus, located in Haining, Zhejiang Province, China, was established on 15 March 2016.

The university began hosting a Wikimedian in Residence in 2016. The residency was made into a full-time position in 2019, with the Wikimedian involved in teaching and learning activities within the scope of the University of Edinburgh WikiProject.

In 2018, the University of Edinburgh was a signatory in the ?1.3 billion Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal, in partnership with the UK and Scottish governments, six local authorities and all universities and colleges in the region. The university committed to delivering a range of economic benefits to the region through the Data-Driven Innovation initiative. In conjunction with Heriot-Watt University, the deal created five innovation hubs: the Bayes Centre, Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI), Usher Institute, Easter Bush, and one further hub based at Heriot-Watt, the National Robotarium. The deal also included creation of the Edinburgh International Data Facility, which performs high-speed data processing in a secure environment.

In September 2020, the university completed work on the Richard Verney Health Centre at its central area campus on Bristo Square. The facility houses a health centre and pharmacy, and the university's disability and counselling services. The university's largest current expansion project is the conversion of some of the historic Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh buildings in Lauriston Place, which had been vacated in 2003 and partially developed into the Quartermile. The ?120 million renovation and extension will provide space for the Edinburgh Futures Institute, an interdisciplinary hub linking arts, humanities, and social sciences with other disciplines in the research and teaching of 'complex futures'.

Historical links

Edinburgh has a number of historical links to other universities, chiefly through its influential Medical School and its graduates, who established and developed institutions elsewhere in the world.

· College of William & Mary: the second-oldest college in the US was founded in 1693 by Edinburgh graduate James Blair, who served as the college's founding president for fifty years.

· Columbia University: had its Medical School founded by Samuel Bard, an Edinburgh medical graduate.

· Dalhousie University: Edinburgh alumnus George Ramsay, the 22nd Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, wanted to establish a non-denominational college in Halifax open to all.[104] The school was modelled after the University of Edinburgh, which students could attend regardless of religion or nationality.

· Dartmouth College: had its School of Medicine founded by  Nathan Smith, an alumnus of Edinburgh Medical School.

· Harvard University: had its Medical School founded by three surgeons, one of whom was Benjamin Waterhouse, an alumnus of Edinburgh Medical School.

· McGill University: had its Faculty of Medicine founded by four physicians, which included Edinburgh alumni Andrew Fernando Holmes and John Stephenson.

· University of Pennsylvania: had its School of Medicine founded by Edinburgh graduate John Morgan, who modelled it after Edinburgh Medical School.

· Princeton University: had its academic syllabus and structure reformed along the lines of the University of Edinburgh and other Scottish universities by its sixth president John Witherspoon, an Edinburgh theology graduate.

· University of Sydney: founded in 1850 by Sir Charles Nicholson, a graduate of Edinburgh Medical School.

· Yale University: had its School of Medicine co-founded by Nathan Smith, an alumnus of Edinburgh Medical School.

The university is a member of the Russell Group of research-led British universities, and the Sutton 13 group of top-ranked universities in the UK. It is the only British university to be a member of both the Coimbra Group and the League of European Research Universities, and it is a founding member of Una Europa and Universitas 21, both international associations of research-intensive universities. The university maintains historically strong ties with the neighbouring Heriot-Watt University for teaching and research. Edinburgh also offers a wide range of free online MOOC courses on three global platforms Coursera, Edx and FutureLearn.

Admissions

In 2019, Edinburgh had the seventh-highest average entry standards amongst universities in the UK, with new undergraduates averaging 186 UCAS points, equivalent to just above AAAaa in A-level grades. It gave offers of admission to 52.3% of its 18 year old applicants in 2019, the fifth-lowest amongst the Russell Group.

As the number of places available for Scottish and EU students are capped by the Scottish Government since students do not pay tuition fees, students applying from the rest of the UK and outside the EU have a higher likelihood of an offer. Excluding courses within Edinburgh College of Art, the most competitive courses for Scottish/EU applicants in 2020 were International Relations, Oral Health Science, and Politics, Philosophy & Economics (PPE), with offer rates of 9%, 10% and 11%, respectively. In comparison, students from the rest of the UK have a 40% chance of receiving an offer for International Relations, while students from outside the EU have an 80% chance.

For the academic year 2019/20, 36.8% of Edinburgh's new undergraduates were privately educated, the second-highest proportion among mainstream British universities, behind only Oxford. As of August 2021, it has a higher proportion of female than male students with a male to female ratio of 38:62 in the undergraduate population, and the undergraduate student body is composed of 30% Scottish students, 32% from the rest of the UK, 10% from the EU, and 28% from outside the EU.

Graduation

See also: Academic dress of the University of Edinburgh

At graduation ceremonies, graduates are being 'capped' with the Geneva bonnet, which involves the university's principal tapping them on the head with the cap while they receive their graduation certificate. The velvet-and-silk hat has been used for over 150 years, and legend says that it was originally made from cloth taken from the breeches of 16th-century scholars John Knox or George Buchanan. However, when the hat was last restored in the early 2000s, a label dated 1849 was discovered bearing the name of Edinburgh tailor Henry Banks, although some doubt remains whether he manufactured or restored the hat. In 2006, a university emblem that had been taken into space by astronaut and Edinburgh graduate Piers Sellers was incorporated into the Geneva bonnet.

Library system

Main article: Edinburgh University Library

Pre-dating the university by three years, Edinburgh University Library was founded in 1580 through the donation of a large collection by Clement Litill, and today is the largest academic library collection in Scotland. The eight-storey Main Library building in George Square was designed by Sir Basil Spence. At the time of its completion in 1967, it was the largest building of its type in the UK, and today is a category A listed building. The library system also includes many specialised libraries at the college and school level.

Exchange programmes

The university offers students the opportunity to study in Europe and beyond via the European Union's Erasmus+ programme and a variety of international exchange agreements with around 300 partners institutions in nearly 40 countries worldwide.

University-wide exchanges are open to almost any student whose degree permits a year abroad and who can find a suitable course combination. The list of partner institutions is shown as follows (part of):

· Asia-Pacific: University of Auckland, Fudan University, University of Hong Kong, University of Melbourne, Seoul National University, Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore

· Europe: University of Amsterdam, University of Copenhagen, University of Helsinki, Lund University, Sciences Po, University College Dublin, Uppsala University

· Latin America: National Autonomous University of Mexico, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, University of S?o Paulo

· Northern America: Boston College, University of California (except for Merced and San Francisco),[179] Caltech, University of Chicago, University of Cornell, Georgetown University, McGill University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas at Austin, University of Toronto, University of Virginia, Washington University in St. Louis

Subject-specific exchanges are open to students studying in particular schools or subject areas, including exchange programmes with Carnegie Mellon University, Emory University, EPFL, ETH Zurich, HEC Paris, Karolinska Institute, Kyoto University, Peking Unive rsity, Technical University of Munich, and others.

Rankings and reputation

In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), which evaluated work produced between 2014 and 2021, Edinburgh ranked 4th by research power and 15th by GPA amongst British universities. The university fell four places in GPA when compared to the 2014 REF, but retained its place in research power. 90 per cent of the university's research activity was judged to be 'world leading' (4*) or 'internationally excellent' (3*), and five departments – Computer Science, Informatics, Sociology, Anthropology, and Development Studies – were ranked as the best in the UK.

In the 2015 THE Global Employability University Ranking, Edinburgh ranked 23rd in the world and 4th in the UK for graduate employability as voted by international recruiters. A 2015 government report found that Edinburgh was one of only two Scottish universities (along with St Andrews) that some London-based elite recruitment firms considered applicants from, especially in the field of financial services and investment banking. When The New York Times ranked universities based on the employability of graduates as evaluated by recruiters from top companies in 20 countries in 2012, Edinburgh was placed at 42nd in the world and 7th in Britain.

Edinburgh was ranked 24th in the world and 5th in the UK by the 2021 Aggregate Ranking of Top Universities, a league table based on the three major world university rankings, ARWU, QS and THE. In the 2022 U.S. News & W orld Report, Edinburgh ranked 32nd globally and 5th nationally. The 2021 World Reputation Rankings placed Edinburgh at 30th worldwide and 6th nationwide. In 2021, it ranked 63rd amongst the universities around the world by the SCImago Institutions Rankings.

The noticeable disparity between Edinburgh's research capacity, endowment and international status on the one hand, and its ranking in national league tables on the other, is largely due to the impact of measures of 'student satisfaction'. Edinburgh was ranked last in the UK for teaching quality in the 2012 National Student Survey, with the 2015 Good University Guide stating that this stemmed from "questions to do with the promptness, usefulness and extent of academic feedback", and that the university "still has a long way to go to turn around a poor position". Edinburgh improved only marginally over the next years, with the 2021 Good University Guide still ranking it in the bottom 10 domestically in both teaching quality and student experience. Edinburgh was ranked 122nd out of 128 universities for student satisfaction in the 2022 Complete University Guide, although it was ranked 12th overall. The 2022 Guardian University Guide ranked Edinburgh 12th overall, but 101st out of 119 universities in course satisfaction, and lowest among all universities in satisfaction with feedback.

In the 2022 Complete University Guide, 32 out of the 49 subjects offered by Edinburgh were ranked within the top 10 in the UK, with Asian Studies (4th), Chemical Engineering (4th), Education (2nd), Geology (5th), Linguistics (5th), Mechanical Engineering (5th), Medicine (5th), Music (5th), Nursing (1st), Physics & Astronomy (5th), Social Policy (5th), Theology & Religious Studies (4th), and Veterinary Medicine (2nd) within the top 5. The 2021 THE World University Rankings by Subject ranked Edinburgh 10th worldwide in Arts and Humaniti es, 15th in Law, 16th in Psychology, 21st in Clinical, Pre-clinical & Health, 22nd in Computer Science, 28th in Education, 28th in Life Science, 43rd in Business & Economics, 44th in Social Sciences, 45th in Physical Sciences, and 86th in Engineering & Technology. The 2021 QS World University Rankings by Subject placed Edinburgh at 11th globally in Arts & Humanities, 24th in Life Sciences & Medicine, 43rd in Natural Sciences, 59th in Social Sciences & Management, and 75th in Engineering & Technology. According to CSRankings, computer science of the university rated 36th in the world and 1st in the UK, and Edinburgh was the best in natural language processing (NLP) in the world.