Edinburgh’s Influence

The largest ever programme of school building and refurbishment in the city’s history is well underway in Edinburgh. This will see 56% of the city’s secondary schools rebuilt or refurbished by 2010, along with 21% of the primary schools and 43% of special schools. This will help to ‘future proof’ Edinburgh’s influence in the years to come.

Edinburgh has a rich history in education, establishing the first Scottish civic university ‘Townis College’ in 1583. The city’s colleges and universities have supported many famous sons and daughters over the years. Here's just a few notable figures:

• Charles Darwin, author of ‘Origin of the Species,’ studied medicine at The University of Edinburgh from 1825 to 1827
• Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), novelist, poet, historian, father of the historical novel, graduate of The University of Edinburgh and one of the founding fathers of the Edinburgh Academy
• Former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh
• Sir Sean Connery was born and brought up in the Fountainbridge area of the city. He donated his $1,000,000 fee from ‘Diamonds are Forever’ (1971) in order to co-found the Scottish International Education Trust
• Ian Rankin, the acclaimed crime fiction writer, graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: author and creator of Sherlock Holmes and medical graduate of the University of Edinburgh
• Professor Bill Hardcastle, an award winning researcher from Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, who developed speech disorder therapeutic technology
• Fraser Stoddart received his BSc (1964) and PhD (1966) degrees from the University of Edinburgh. He was one of the few chemists of the past quarter of a century to have created a new field of organic chemistry
• Lord Joseph Lister founded antiseptic medicine and was a Professor of Clinical Surgery at the University of Edinburgh.