The University of Edinburgh has been named as the second most beautiful university in the UK by the respected Times Higher Education journal.
According to the judgement of Times Higher Education, only Royal Holloway, University of London, trumps the beauty of Edinburgh’s campus.
Thus, our university ranks higher than the campuses of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.
The University of Glasgow was the other Scottish university which made it into the top 10, ranking sixth.
In the end, features such as the iconic Georgian Old College with its eye-catching dome, McEwan Hall and New College guaranteed the university a place near the top.
The Times Higher Education authors also stressed that the beauty of the University of Edinburgh’s campus also stems from its location in a remarkable city with an illustrious history and unique landmarks such as Arthur’s Seat.
Speaking to The Student, Gavin Douglas, Deputy Secretary for Student Experience, said: “We are very proud of our campuses and their setting in one of the world’s most beautiful cities.
“We understand how important it is that the physical environment of the university supports the learning and wellbeing of our students, but we also know we can make things even better.”
Douglas went on to say, “that’s why we have recently announced a further £200 million investment over the next eight years in learning, teaching and student support facilities.”
The Times Higher Education authors justified their ranking of the University of Glasgow by pointing out its “magnificent architecture is a combination of Gothic Revival and Brutalism.”
They further referred to its buildings and green spaces as “an Instagrammer’s dream.”
The Times Higher Education publishea annual rankings of universities’ appearance and teaching and research standards since 2004. It describes itself as the publisher of the most influential university rankings worldwide, “with unparalleled expertise on the trends underpinning university performance globally.”
The data gathered by Times Higher Education enables the comparison of more than 1,300 British and international societies.
This offers a compact comparative overview for prospective students and staff members, as well as the higher education institutions themselves, who are said to use the data and benchmarks to achieve their strategic goals.
Despite the significance of Times Higher Education, the company’s ranking results have faced and continue to face some criticism concerning the quality of their data.
It has been claimed that, in teaching and research rankings, the applied methodology tends to favour institutions with a focus on the so-called hard sciences as opposed to social sciences and humanities, and universities with a relatively small number of undergraduate students.
Critics have also argued that the emphasis on citations as a metric for high-quality higher education is likely to place universities whose primary language is not English at a disadvantage.
Image: Rosie Duckwortth / Photographer