Scottish Blog

Queen Margaret University is a relatively new university in Scotland, named in honor of Saint Margaret.

Queen Margaret University was begun as the “The Edinburgh School of Cookery and Domestic Economy”. It was originally a female only school. It two official purposes were to improve the chances of woman attaining a higher education and also improving the daily diet of middle class Scottish families.

Initially, the Queen Margaret University had no physical campus and all lectures were delivered at the Royal Museum in Edinburgh, Scotland, alongside a number of a smaller public lectures or demonstrations that were delivered throughout the nation.

In 1877 Queen Margaret University moved to the first of its Edinburgh based teaching bases, which was Shandwick Place. It continued to teach from here until 1891 when the campus was shifted to Atholl Crescent, which carried with it the benefit of providing on campus living for students. In 1909, the Queen Margaret University attained the classification as a central institution (a classification of a higher education provider), it was also the year that the university came into jurisdiction of the Scotch Education Department. Soon after, in 1930, the current Queen Margaret University was named “Edinburgh College of Domestic Science”.

By 1972, Queen Margaret University was one step away from being known under its current name, it was named the Queen Margaret College and had by then completed a thorough expansion of its provided courses, encompassing all fields covered by a modern university.
Presently the institution is called the Queen Margaret University and attained the title in early January of 2007. It is also undergoing major renovations which will see its three split campuses converge to one location in East Edinburgh.