The university was founded in 1410 when a group of Augustinian clergy, driven from the University of Paris by the Avignon schism and from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge by the Anglo-Scottish Wars, formed a society of higher learning in St Andrews, which offered courses of lectures in divinity, logic, philosophy, and law. A charter of privilege was bestowed upon the society of masters and scholars by the Bishop of St Andrews, Henry Wardlaw, on 28 February 1411 Wardlaw then successfully petitioned the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII to grant the school university status by issuing a series of papal bulls, which followed on 28 August 1413. King James I of Scotland confirmed the charter of the university in 1432. Subsequent kings supported the university, with King James V of Scotland “confirming privileges of the university” in 1532A college of theology and arts, called St John’s College, was founded in 1418 by Robert of Montrose and Lawrence of Lindores. St Salvator’s College was established in 1450 by Bishop James Kennedy. St Leonard’s College was founded in 1511 by Archbishop Alexander Stewart, who intended it to have a far more monastic character than either of the other colleges. St John’s College was refounded by Cardinal James Beaton under the name St Mary’s College in 1538 for the study of divinity and law. It was intended to encourage traditional Catholic teachings in opposition to the emerging Scottish Reformation, but once Scotland had formally split with the Papacy in 1560, it became a teaching institution for Protestant clergy. At its foundation in 1538 St Mary’s was intended to be a college for instruction in divinity, law, and medicine, as well as in Arts, but its career on this extensive scale was short-lived. Under a new foundation and erection, confirmed by Parliament in 1579, it was set apart for the study of Theology only, and it has remained a Divinity College ever since.
Some university buildings that date from this period are still in use today, such as St Salvator’s Chapel, St Leonard’s College Chapel and St Mary’s College quadrangle. At this time, the majority of the teaching was of a religious nature and was conducted by clerics associated with the cathedral.
In the 2022 The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, St Andrews ranked as the best university in the UK, as the first university to ever top Oxford and Cambridge in a British ranking
View across St Salvator’s Quad
In a ranking conducted by The Guardian in 2009, St Andrews placed fifth in the UK for national reputation behind Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial & LSE. When size is taken into account, St Andrews ranks second in the world out of all small to medium-sized fully comprehensive universities (after Brown University) using metrics from the QS Intelligence Unit in 2015. The 2014 Research Excellence Framework ranked St Andrews 14th in the UK, and second in Scotland, amongst multi-faculty institutions for the research quality (GPA) of its output profile Andrews was ranked ninth overall in The Sunday Times 10-year (1998–2007) average ranking of British universities based on consistent league table performance,and is a member of the ‘Sutton 13’ of top ranked Universities in the UK.
Nearly 86% of its graduates obtain a First Class or an Upper Second Class Honours degree.The ancient Scottish universities award Master of Arts degrees (except for science students who are awarded a Bachelor of Science degree) which are classified upon graduation, in contrast to Oxbridge where one becomes a Master of Arts after a certain number of years, and the rest of the UK, where graduates are awarded BAs. These can be awarded with honours; the majority of students graduate with honours.
University of St Andrews
- Faculty of Arts: art history, classics, economics, English, film studies, history, international relations, management, modern languages, philosophy, social anthropology.
- Faculty of Divinity: divinity.
- Faculty of Medicine: medicine.
- Faculty of Science: biology, chemistry, computer science, geography and geosciences, mathematics, physics and astronomy, psychology and neuroscience.