Queen Margaret University Edinburgh

About the University

We aim to shape a better world through education, research and innovation. In doing so, we enable individuals and communities to flourish.

Our person-centred approach to learning makes us stand out from other universities, along with our focus on making society better. Our academic offering also distinguishes us. We dedicate ourselves to subjects where we can offer a distinctive offering - in healthcare; social sciences; creative arts; business, management and enterprise; and primary and secondary teaching.

Outward looking, we have strong ethos of partnership and collaboration. At our modern campus, we benefit from easy access to the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland’s vibrant and historic capital city.

We are pioneers in inclusiveness and we embrace people from all backgrounds. Social justice is central to our values.

In this section of our website, you can find out about the history of the university, along with information about governance, the Principal and Vice-Chancellor, the senior leadership team and our collaborative partners.

You will also find practical information including travel and transport information and policy and strategy documents. You can read about our innovative campus and our commitment to sustainability.

Our Strategic Plan

Our Strategic Plan 2020-2025 demonstrates how we will contribute to society’s recovery and recalibration following COVID-19. It sets out how we will help create a better society through teaching, learning and innovation.

It shows how we will nurture our distinctive person-centred approach to learning, and how we will build on our unique academic portfolio. Promoting creativity, agility, resilience and collaboration, the strategy holds true to the ethos of social justice on which this institution was founded. Our commitment to sustainability will inform all the actions we take.

Introduction from the Principal and Vice-Chancellor

As we look to the future, the over-riding issue will be the way we, and indeed society as a whole, recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. My colleagues at QMU have been simply outstanding in enabling our students to complete their studies in the 2019/20 academic year and in preparing our University to welcome new and returning students in the autumn.

Looking further ahead, we will need to be creative, agile and resilient as well as holding true to our values. It will, without doubt, be a challenging time but there will also be opportunities.

And we must not lose sight of other important issues such as accelerating technological change and innovation; an increasing focus on sustainability; and social and demographic change.

Through our teaching and research, we will address these issues, including playing our part in responding to the impact of the pandemic. We will enable people to heal, nurture, care and communicate.

We will inspire them to build and rebuild businesses, find solutions to real life issues and to support communities. We will foster creativity and artistic expression, building social capital in the process.

Our programmes cover healthcare; social sciences; creative arts; business, management and enterprise; and primary and secondary teaching.

Trained professionals in many of these areas played key roles in tackling the pandemic and all of them will be vital to the global recovery.

Our graduates and staff can already be found in influential roles across the world, influencing policy and enhancing society, culture and the economy. In short, we make a real difference in the world in keeping with our values.

Read our student and graduate stories

We are a distinctive university because of our innovative, person-centred approach to learning and because of our unique academic portfolio. We recognise that the nature of learning itself is changing and this will be influenced further by adaptions as a consequence of the unprecedented situation in 2020.

We are committed to developing the way we teach and research to be flexible and responsive both to the needs of our students and the communities we serve. Our approach to blended learning is predicated on quality and effectiveness.