Concept
University of St Andrews
Overview
The University of St Andrews (Scots: University o St Andras, Scottish Gaelic: Oilthigh Chill Rìmhinn; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public research university in the town of St Andrews in Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, following the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the third-oldest university in the English-speaking world. St Andrews was founded in 1413 when the Avignon Antipope Benedict XIII issued a papal bull to a small founding group of Augustinian clergy. Along with the universities of Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh, St Andrews was part of the Scottish Enlightenment during the 18th century.
St Andrews is made up of a variety of institutions, comprising three colleges — United College (a union of St Salvator's and St Leonard's Colleges), St Mary's College, and St Leonard's College, the last named being a non-statutory revival of St Leonard's as a post-graduate society. There are 18 academic schools organised into four faculties. The university spans both historic and contemporary buildings scattered across the town. The academic year is divided into two semesters, Martinmas and Candlemas. In term time, over one-third of the town's population are either staff members or students of the university. The student body is known for preserving ancient traditions such as Raisin Weekend, May Dip, and the wearing of distinctive academic dress.
The student body is also notably diverse: over 145 nationalities are represented with about 45% of its intake from countries outside the UK; a tenth of students are from Europe with the remainder from the rest of the world—20% from North America alone. Undergraduate admissions are among the most selective in the country, with the university having the third-lowest offer rate for 2022 entry (behind only Oxford and Cambridge) and the highest entry standards of new students, as measured by UCAS entry tariff, at 215 points.
St Andrews has many notable alumni and affiliated faculty, including eminent mathematicians, scientists, theologians, philosophers, and politicians. Recent alumni include the former first minister of Scotland Alex Salmond; former Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill; former Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) Alex Younger; Olympic cycling gold medalist Chris Hoy; Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations Dame Barbara Woodward; and royals William, Prince of Wales, and Catherine, Princess of Wales. Five Nobel laureates are among St Andrews' alumni and former staff: three in Chemistry and two in Physiology or Medicine.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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By those voyages, the seeds of various kinds of knowledge and improvement were at different times imported into England. They were cultivated in the leisure and retirement of monasteries; otherwise they could not have been cultivated at all: for it was altogether necessary to draw certain men from the general rude and fierce society, and wholly to set a bar between them and the barbarous life of the rest of the…
Edmund Burke, Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke
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We found these old institutions, on the whole, favorable to morality and discipline; and we thought they were susceptible of amendment, without altering the ground. We thought that they were capable of receiving and meliorating, and above all of preserving, the accessions of science and literature, as the order of Providence should successively produce them. And after all, with this Gothic and monkish education…
Edmund Burke, The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 03
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In the first place, we may fairly question whether experience has afforded sufficient grounds for an induction. It is scarcely three generations since women, saving very rare exceptions, have begun to try their capacity in philosophy, science, or art. It is only in the present generation that their attempts have been at all numerous; and they are even now extremely few, everywhere but in England and France. It is a…
John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women
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Philosophers who discussed University of St Andrews
- Edmund Burke
- Roger Scruton
- Linda Zagzebski
- Thomas Carlyle
- René Girard
- J. O. Urmson
- John Stuart Mill
- Peter van Inwagen
- Adam Ferguson
- A. J. Ayer
- T. H. Green
- Richard Dawkins
- Roger Penrose
- Thomas Hobbes
- Crispin Wright
- J. M. E. McTaggart
- Martha Nussbaum
- Graham Priest
- Blaise Pascal
- Alfred North Whitehead
- Hilary Putnam
- Alvin Plantinga
- John Haldane (philosopher)
- Keith Ward
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- James Wilson (Founding Father)
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- Reader (academic rank)
- University of Nottingham
- Protestantism
- University of Cambridge
- Scotland
- University of Auckland
Place in the tradition
Part of Frederick Copleston.