University of Aberdeen 
Motto: Initium sapientiae timor domini
(The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom) Logo © University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen is a university in Aberdeen, Scotland, founded by William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen in 1495 as Kings College. In April 1593 a second institute of higher learning in Aberdeen, Marischal College, was founded by George Keith, the fourth Earl Marischal. In 1858, the Universities of Scotland Act merged King's College and Marischal College. The Act also created a new medical school at Marischal. The University is Scotland's third oldest and the UK's fifth oldest University.
Enrollment In 2000 - 2001, the number of full-time students at the Institution was 13,278, including 9,906 undergraduates and 3,012 postgraduates. There are five faculties (Arts & Divinity, Education, Medicine & Medical Sciences, Science & Engineering, and Social Sciences & Law) and 48 academic departments.
Architecture & Buildings The original buildings of both colleges are the glories of Aberdeen, though newer campus buildings are in largely modernist style. King's College forms a quadrangle with interior court, two sides of which have been rebuilt, and a library wing has been added. The Crown Tower and the Chapel, the oldest parts, date from 1500. The former is surmounted by a structure about 40 ft (12 m) high, consisting of a six-sided lantern and royal crown, both sculptured, and resting on the intersections of two arched ornamental slips rising from the four corners of the top of the tower. The choir of the chapel still contains the original oak canopied stalls, miserere seats, and lofty open screens in the French flamboyant style, and of unique beauty of design and execution. Their preservation was due to the enlightened energy of the principal at the time of the Reformation, who armed his folk to save the building from the barons of the Mearns after they had robbed St Machar's of its bells and lead. Today, King's returns the favour by providing needed funds for the university as it fulfils its sometime occupation as corporate reception and exhibition area. Marischal College is a stately modern building, having been rebuilt in 1836_1841, and greatly extended several years later at a cost of £100,000. The additions to the buildings opened by King Edward VII in 1906, form one of the most splendid examples of modern Great Britain; the architect, Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, a native of Aberdeen, having adapted his material, white granite, to the design of a noble building with the originality of genius. The beautiful Mitchell Tower is so named from the benefactor (Dr Charles Mitchell) who provided the splendid graduation hall. The opening of this tower in 1895 signalled the commemoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the university. The University Library comprises nearly 100,000 books. A botanic garden was presented to the university in 1899.
Alumni Famous alumni of the University include Nicky Campbell (radio/TV presenter), Alastair Darling (politician) and James Naughtie (radio presenter).
Robert Gordon University is also located in Aberdeen.
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