The University of Edinburgh (abbreviated as Edin. in post-nominals), founded in 1582. is the sixth oldest university in theEnglish-speaking world and one of Scotland's ancient universities. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city ofEdinburgh, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university.Founded by the Edinburgh Town Council, the university began life as a college of law using part of a legacy left by Bishop Robert Reid of St Magnus Cathedral, Orkney. Through efforts by the Town Council and Ministers of the City the institution broadened in scope and became formally established as a college by a Royal Charter, granted by King James VI of Scotland on April 14, 1582 after the petitioning of the Council.
The University of Edinburgh is ranked 17th in the world by the 2013–14 and 2014–15 QS rankings.[6][7] The Research Excellence Framework, a research ranking used by the UK government to determine future research funding, ranked Edinburgh 4th in the UK for research power, with Computer Science and Informatics ranking 1st in the UK. It is ranked 12th in the world in arts and humanities by the 2014–15 Times Higher Education Ranking. It is ranked the 15th most employable university in the world by the 2013 Global Employability University Ranking. It is ranked as the 6th best university in Europe by the U.S. News' Best Global Universities Ranking.It is a member of both the Russell Group, and the League of European Research Universities, a consortium of 21 research universities in Europe. It has the third largest endowment of any university in the United Kingdom, after the universities of Cambridge and Oxford.
