Queen Margaret University Information

Queen Margaret University (formerly Queen Margaret University College and Queen Margaret College) is a public university located in Musselburgh, East Lothian, Scotland. It is named after Saint Margaret, wife of King Malcolm III of Scotland. Its predecessor, Queen Margaret University College, was awarded full university status becoming Queen Margaret University in January 2007.

The University was founded in 1875, as The Edinburgh School of Cookery and Domestic Economy, by Christian Guthrie Wright and Louisa Stevenson, both members of the Edinburgh Ladies Educational Association. The School was founded as a women-only institution, with twin aims of improving womens access to higher education and improving the diets of working class families. Teaching was initially delivered via lectures at the Royal Museum, supplemented by a programme of public lectures and demonstrations delivered nationwide, but in 1877 the School established a base at Shandwick Place, in Haymarket.

The school moved in 1891 to Atholl Crescent, expanding its courses and offering residential places to students. In 1909, the School was designated a Central Institution and brought under the public control of the Scottish Education Department. The first Principal appointed was Ethel De la Cour. De la Cour retired in 1930, and in the same year the School became the Edinburgh College of Domestic Science.

In 1961, the College acquired its Corstorphine campus, purchasing a portion of the Clermiston estate from developers. The campus was first occupied by the College in 1970, opened by Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester who was Patron of the institution until her death in 2004. In 1972, the name Queen Margaret College was adopted to dissociate the College from the narrow field of domestic science. Thereafter, the College broadened its range of courses, especially in the dramatic arts and paramedical healthcare fields. The following institutions have since been absorbed by Queen Margaret College:

In 1992, the Privy Council granted Queen Margaret College powers to award its own taught degrees, and in 1998, the College was granted full degree powers, which enabled it to award its own research and higher degrees. As a result, in 1999 the College took the name Queen Margaret University College. After the University College attained the final criteria of acquiring a minimum of 5000 students (something that could not be gained earlier as the campuses could not accommodate this number of students), the institution was awarded full university status, becoming Queen Margaret University in January 2007.

In 2012, QMU became the first university in Scotland to have a Business Gateway on campus.

Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond announced in May 2010 that QMU was to be the official host of the archives for Homecoming Scotland 2009. The Homecoming Scotland Archive will provide the University with a unique opportunity to collect, catalogue and preserve materials associated with Scottish Homecoming 2009 for the benefit of people in both Scotland and across the world.

Before moving to a new campus in Musselburgh, Queen Margaret University had been based in campuses in Corstorphine (to the West of Edinburgh), in Leith, and at the Gateway Theatre – Scotlands International Drama Centre – (a former television studio previously owned by Scottish Television) on Elm Row, Leith Walk.

In 2007-2008, the university brought together students from its three campuses in Edinburgh by moving to a new purpose-built campus in Musselburgh. Costing £100 million, the new campus covers 35 acres (14 hectares) and holds educational buildings, a students union, a small gym and halls of residence of more than 800 rooms.

QMU has been "touted as the countrys greenest University campus". The campus was designed by Dyer Architects to exceed current environmental standards and sets a new benchmark in sustainable design. The entire development transformed a 35-acre (14-hectare) site from low-grade farmland into landscaped parkland.

In June 2015, Queen Margaret University announced it would hold public consultations for plans to build a new innovation park and shopping hub on open land around the Musselburgh campus. Site proposals are being developed by CAM-SCI, a Cambridge-based economic consultancy, which has developed science parks across the UK.

The Learning Resource Centre (LRC) comprises approximately 4,500 square metres (0.45 hectares) of the main academic building. Located at the heart of the campus, it provides library, IT and AV services to students, staff and visitors of the university. The LRC consists of a facility for both directed and self-directed study, based on an integrated library and information service provision. The LRC has 1,000 study spaces organised as a mixture of silent and group study areas, bookable group study rooms, training rooms, assistive technology, student learning support and a postgraduate study room.

The Education Resource Centre provides audio-visual services to the university. This includes the provision of AV equipment in classrooms and lecture theatres as well as more specialised services such as graphics, photography, video-conferencing and TV studio facilities.

Following restructuring in early 2010, the Schools of Social Sciences, Media and Communication, Business, Enterprise and Management, and Drama and Creative Industries were merged. The present Dean is Professor Brigid Daniel. The School offers courses in Business, Enterprise and Management; Governance, Justice and Public Management; Hospitality and Gastronomy; Creativity and Culture; and Public Relations .

QMU is part of the Scottish Drama Training Network which was set up by the Scottish Funding Council in 2010 to foster cohesion across stage and screen professional practice, education and training. Through the Network, QMU in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University delivers the BA (Hons) Acting for Stage and Screen.

The School is the only institution in Scotland that is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations to deliver the postgraduate CIPR Diploma in Public Relations. The Schools Bachelor of Science (BSc) courses in psychology; MSc in Health Psychology are accredited by the British Psychological Society.

BA (Hons) in Media graduate, Agata Jagodzinska, was awarded for Best Writer at the BAFTA in Scotland New Talent Awards 2012.

It is also only one of three places in Scotland to offer a degree in Costume.

The School of Health Sciences offers courses in dietetics, nutrition and biological sciences; nursing; speech and language therapy, audiology, occupational therapy and art therapy; physiotherapy; podiatry; radiography; art psychotherapy, dance movement psychotherapy and music therapy.

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