University of Dundee

The University of Dundee began in 1881, when Mary Ann Baxter and her cousin John Boyd Baxter donated £140,000 to create a college in Dundee. The founding deed said the college should promote the education of persons of both sexes and the study of science, literature and the fine arts, with no religious instruction and no requirement to declare a faith. In its first year 373 students signed up, housed in four detached houses on the Nethergate. For most of its early life the college was part of the University of St Andrews, before gaining independent university status by Royal Charter on 1 August 1967. Today Dundee is a research university with strengths in life sciences, medicine, dentistry, law, art and design, engineering and the social sciences, and a campus in the West End of Dundee. Dundee’s early lecturers included the biologist D’Arcy Thompson and the botanist Patrick Geddes, and its graduates include Scotland’s first female professor, Margaret Fairlie. The university is known for its work in medical and life sciences, and for the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design.