School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh School of GeoSciences is a department within the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. It was formed in 2002 by the merger of four departments. It is split between the King's Buildings and the Central Area of the university. The institutes of Ecological Sciences and Earth Science are located at the King's Buildings, whilst the Institute of Geography is located on Drummond Street in the Central Area. In 2013 the department was ranked 8th best place to study geography in the country by The Guardian University Rankings, down from 2nd in 2006. The school is ranked as one of the best in the UK for Earth Sciences. A 2008 Research Assessment Exercise assessment ranked the "Earth Systems and Environmental Science" department as the best in the UK by number of world leading research and staff. Its Geography department was ranked 15th in the world according to the 2015 QS rankings. There are over 1100 undergraduate students and 250 postgraduate students in the School of GeoSciences. There are also around 100 research and teaching staff within the school. The School collaborates with the University of Edinburgh Business School and the School of Economics, to offer a Carbon Management MSc degree, the first in the world, which has students from over 20 countries. The school also has exchange programmes though the Erasmus programme, in addition to universities in Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. The head of the School of GeoSciences is currently Professor Bryne Ngwenya. Famous recent alumni of the School include former BP chief executive Tony Hayward. Former Rector of the university Peter McColl matriculated at one of the predecessors, the Department of Geography. Competition for entry is highly selective, in 2010, the School received 2221 applications, but only 275 offers were made, representing a 16.9% of an applicant receiving an offer. The school currently offers 11 undergraduate courses and a range of postgraduate degrees.

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Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation

The Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation (ISSTI) is an interdisciplinary research centre based in the UK. The research network was established in 2001 to bring together groups of academics and individual researchers across the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. It consolidates activities in research, teaching and knowledge transfer on social and policy aspects of science, technology and innovation. ISSTI emerged from the interdisciplinary research collaboration established amongst specialist groups and scholars at the University of Edinburgh under the ESRC Programme on Information and Communications Technology, coordinated by the Research Centre for Social Sciences. Other founding members were the Sociology subject group, the Science Studies Unit, the Japanese European Technology Studies Institute (JETS) and the Entrepreneurship and Innovation group in the Business School and Economics, and the Innogen Centre. Over time this collaboration has expanded to include a wider array of scholars and specialist centres across the University including the Schools of Informatics, Law, Public Health, and Edinburgh College of Art with links also to Geosciences, Engineering and Philosophy. Today ISSTI comprises over 100 staff and research students. It constitutes one of the most interdisciplinary groupings in the field of science, technology and innovation studies measured in terms joint publication and publication outliets.

Landmark School

New College Settlement

The New College Settlement was a student settlement based on the Pleasance in the Southside of Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by students of New College in 1893, its work continued until 1952. New College was the ministerial training college for the Free Church of Scotland. The New College Missionary Society had undertaken home mission work in deprived areas of Edinburgh since 1845, settling in the former buildings of Pleasance Free Church in 1876. In 1893, a tenement for resident student workers was added to the mission premises, establishing the mission as part of the growing settlement movement. Having previously relied on student wardens, a permanent, ordained warden, John Harry Miller, was appointed in 1908. In 1913, the settlement was constituted as Pleasance Mission Church. In 1919, this united with nearby Arthur Street United Free Church. Miller became minister of the united charge of Pleasance United Free Church, holding the role in tandem with the wardenship of the settlement. By the wake of the Second World War the Pleasance area was experiencing depopulation and the settlement closed in 1952. The settlement's buildings consisted of the former Pleasance Free Church and, next door, a tenement of 1891–1893 designed by Henry F. Kerr. The tenement is an example of both Arts and Crafts architecture and of the Old Edinburgh movement, popularised by Patrick Geddes. The buildings now form part of the University of Edinburgh's Pleasance complex.

Church Landmark

Lady Yester's Kirk

Lady Yester's Kirk was a parish church of the Church of Scotland and one of the burgh churches of Edinburgh. Founded in 1647, it served the south-eastern part of Edinburgh's Old Town until its union with Greyfriars Kirk in 1938. Margaret, Lady Yester gave a benefaction to establish the church in 1647; though a parish and minister were not allotted to the church until 1655. It was again without a regular congregation between 1662 and 1691. A secession from the congregation in 1764 led to the formation of Edinburgh's first Relief congregation. The church was notable for its close connection to the nearby University of Edinburgh and three of its ministers served as the university's principal. Though the Disruption of 1843 little affected the church, improvement works and population movement in the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century depleted the congregation. In 1938, the congregation united with Greyfriars Kirk. The building was sold to the university, which continues to use it as the headquarters of its Estates Department. The church building was completed in 1805 to a Jacobean design by William Sibbald. It incorporates and imitates some features of the original church, which stood slightly to the east. The first church included the burial aisle of Lady Yester. An elaborate Renaissance plaque which stood over her grave is now housed in Greyfriars Kirk.

Church Landmark

The Pleasance

The Pleasance is a theatre, bar, sports and recreation complex in Edinburgh, Scotland, situated on a street of the same name. It is owned by the University of Edinburgh, and for nine months of the year it serves the Edinburgh University Students' Association as a societies centre, sports complex, student union bar and entertainment venue. Every August, it is converted into one of the main venues for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Pleasance Theatre Trust operate the venue during this time, and in this guise the complex is sometimes referred to as Pleasance Edinburgh to distinguish it from a sister venue, also called The Pleasance, that the trust opened in Islington in London in 1995.

Music Theater