The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is an internationally renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, United Kingdom and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The prestigious University is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the iconic buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the University.
It was the fourth university to be established in Scotland and is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious universities in Europe, having been consistently placed amongst the leading universities in the world. Edinburgh receives approximately 47,000 applications every year, making it the third most popular university in the UK by volume of applicants. Entrance is intensively competitive, with 12 applications per place in the last admissions cycle.The University played an important role in leading the city of 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, economist Adam Smith, 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, Sir Walter Scott, and J. K. Rowling. The University is also associated with 9 Nobel Prize winners.