Scotland is the perfect studyabroad destination for an ambitious international student. It’s epic history, amazing cities and mesmerizing natural beauty make it a popular destination, whether you’re scaling a mountain with a good book.
Scotland equally has a popular reputation for excellence in its education system, based on the Times Higher Education World University Rankings of 2020. It has a number of universities that were founded thousands of years ago.To provide context, four of the top five universities in Scotland were established before 1600, with the oldest, St Andrews, founded sometime in 1413.
The capital city Edinburg has mountains of Arthur’s Seat look down on the cobbled streets and shopfronts of the old city. It was once the central point of Scottish Enlightenment, and still maintains a healthy reputation for academic and creative passion.
If you didn’t know, every August, the capital plans and hosts the Edinburgh Festival, the world’s largest festival.In fact, tons of theatre and art performances take place over during three-week event.
The largest city in Scotland, Glasgow, has equally benefited from rapid redevelopment in recent times. From vibrant modern music venues to new shopping centres and classic Victorian buildings, Glasgow has reimagined city life for locals and international students.
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Top 5 universities in Scotland
1. University of Edinburgh
Currently, the University of Edinburgh is Scotland’s most ranked institution. It is rated as one of the best universities in the world for arts and humanities, and also for computer science programs. Students who study here have the fantastic opportunity of studying in some of the most iconic and enchanting buildings in the city.
The university has equally trained some of the greatest minds in Scottish history, popular names such as the philosopher David Hume and Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle to mention a few. It’s also the institution where Dolly the sheep was successfully cloned.
2. University of Glasgow
Glasgow has a vibrant cultural scene and nightlife due to the presence of the University of Glasgow. It is one of the top research universities in the UK, and continues to produce a good quantity of internationally recognised papers. Glasgow ranks ahead of Edinburgh for its architecture, with more than 100 listed buildings.
The institution has produced seven Nobel prizewinners and three prime ministers who studied at Glasgow. If you didn’t know, there are two distinct students’ unions at the University of Glasgow. This tradition of maintaining two student unions goes back to the time when male and female students attended different institutions. Glasgow University Union is particularly famous for sports, while Queen Margaret Union’s music venue hosts internationally recognized bands and events.
3. University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen is equally one of the leading universities in the UK for graduate studies.You’ll realize that it’s campuses are an amazing mix of old and new, reflecting the courses they specialise in. To provide context, Old Aberdeen campus runs a 15th-century chapel and a state-of-the-art library, where arts and humanities students can have an amazing and perfect atmosphere to study.
Life sciences and medicine are primarily taught at the high-tech Foresterhill campus. The university equally has a lighthouse field station and the Oceanlab research station, for programs specialising in marine ecology. No doubt, Aberdeen in itself is a wealthy city, thanks to oil, with tons of fancy restaurants and bars. This city is also known as the “Silver City” because of its stunning Victorian buildings that were built using glittering granite slabs from local quarries.
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4. University of St Andrews
As Scotland’s oldest institution, St Andrews is located in the town of the same name on the eastern coast of Fife. It equally tops rankings of Scottish universities, and is coveted for its strong academic programs and excellent research.
Poplar alumni include six Nobel laureates, a number of ambassadors and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
The university places focus on sustainability, and has improved efforts to become carbon-neutral. Inorder to achieve this, it runs special initiatives such as an energy-saving competition between the student halls of residence and designs green spaces on campus where students can cultivate their own crops.
5. University of Dundee
At this moment, the University of Dundee is the youngest of Scotland’s top-performing tertiary institutions, founded sometime in 1967. It’s on a mission is to “transform lives locally and globally through the creation, sharing and application of knowledge”.
The city of Dundee also has a rich history of scientific innovation. This can be seen in the university’s consistently strong performance in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) courses. Students are able to walk downtown to visit the RRS Discovery, berthed in Dundee harbour, which Captain Robert Scott sailed on his ever first voyage to the Antarctic.
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