Campus visit
Student-led tours are ideal for visitors to the city who want to find out more about student life and our campuses. We provide tours for both the Central Campus and King’s Buildings Campus.
Our campus tours run from October to November and January to July each year. They offer potential undergraduate and postgraduate students from anywhere in the world an opportunity to visit us and learn about the experience of our students while studying at the University of Edinburgh.
The campus tour is free to attend, but you must book your space in advance. Family and friends are also welcome, however, we kindly request only one additional guest accompanies you on the tour. This is to ensure maximum availability for prospective students.
Please note that the tour not does offer detailed subject-specific information, meetings with subject areas or potential supervisors.
We will explore all options to avoid cancelling our tours, however there may be rare occasions where tours are cancelled at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances. We are unable to accept liability for any costs incurred by visitors (e.g. travel, accommodation). You might want to consider travel insurance or flexible tickets.
Book a campus tour
Our campus tours will be returning on Monday 14 October and you can book your place now. We run tours of our two largest campuses, Central Campus and King's Buildings. When booking a campus tour the form will recommend tours to you based on the subjects of interest you select so we recommend you enter all subjects you have an interest in while booking.
Book your place on a campus tour
Travelling to Edinburgh but unable to attend a Campus Tour?
Outside of our scheduled tours we welcome you to explore the University at your own pace using our self-guided tours. Download our self-guided audio tours or maps, and have them ready for your visit:
If you have any questions about our students' experiences while studying with us you can chat to our students on Unibuddy.
Chat to our students with Unibuddy
More information
Which months to campus tours take place in?
We aim to run campus tours, as much of the year as possible, however, unfortunately in August, September and December we are unable to run tours. During January, we aim to start running tours in line with the beginning of the semester which tends to be around the third week of January. During these months and on days when we do not run tours, we recommend our self-guided tour options.
What times do tours run at?
Tour times available may vary each day based on availability of guides and the number of spaces still available to book. Tours usually run on Mondays and Fridays.
Central Campus
In general, our Central Campus tours usually run on Mondays and Fridays at the following times:
- 1200-1300
- 1230-1330
- 1300-1400
- 1330-1430
- 1400-1500 (Note that this tour is not suitable if you wish to attend King's Buildings Campus Tour later in the day as it only allows 30 minutes to travel).
King’s Buildings
We recommend you leave at least 45 minutes from the end of a Central Campus Tour to the start of your King's Buildings Campus Tour to allow you to self-transfer between the two campuses.
In general, our King's Buildings Campus tours run on Mondays and Fridays at the following times:
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1415-1515
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1530-1630
Central Campus Tour:
You should check-in at the University Visitor Centre at 2 Charles Street (EH8 9AD) around 10 minutes prior to your campus visit start time.
The tour gives you an overview of the University of Edinburgh from someone who knows it best: one of our current students. We will take you around George Square and the surrounding region, referred to as the central campus. The tour will give you an insight into what life is like as a student here.
The tour does not include visits to specific Schools, departmental buildings or student accommodation, however, your guide will share their experience of studying and living in Edinburgh.
King's Buildings Campus Tour (self-transfer):
Please check-in outside the Nucleus Building around 10 minutes prior to your campus visit start time . If you use what3words for navigation, the Nucleus Building is: https://w3w.co/metals.shape.mouse
This tour is specifically aimed towards students who will be studying degree programmes in the College of Science and Engineering who will likely split their time between both central and King’s Buildings. Please note this does not include School of Informatics or Deanery of Biomedical Sciences as they are based in the Central Area.
The tour does not include visits to specific Schools, departmental buildings or student accommodation, however, your guide will share their experience of studying and living in Edinburgh.
Climate Conscious Travel
We highly encourage climate-conscious travel for our staff, students and visitors and would ask that you consider low-carbon travel options where possible. Specific details about how to travel to the city of Edinburgh and our campuses can be found on the University's "Travelling to the University" web pages:
Public Transport
The city of Edinburgh and has excellent public transport connections and it's possible to walk from city centre to the central area campus.
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Train - Edinburgh Waverley Railway station is walking distance from our central campus. It will take approximately 15-20 minutes to walk to the University Visitor Centre.
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Bus - Edinburgh has an excellent bus network. If you're coming directly from the Airport, the Airlink airport buses operate their services from the airport directly into the city centre where you can transfer to local Lothian bus routes to either the central campus or the King's Buildings campus.
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We'd recommend using the Lothian Buses journey planner to help you navigate your way.
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Google Maps also provides helpful information about bus routes. If searching Google Maps, bus stops near to the Central campus include: "Bristo Square", "Potterrow", "Surgeon's Hall"and "Chapel Street". For King's Buildings, the bus stop within the campus is entitled "Kings Buildings", but "West Mains Road" and "Rankin Drive" will also bring you within walking distance of the campus.
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Tram - Direct route from Edinburgh Airport to Princes Street however this is approximately a 20-25 minute walk away from central campus. From the Princes Street tram stop you can choose to continue your journey to our campus via walking, bus or taxi.
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Taxi - Taxis are widely available throughout the city. There are designated taxi ranks located outside Waverley train station's Market Street exit and outside Edinburgh airport's Arrival area.
Personal Vehicles
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There is extremely limited parking around the campuses for visitors so we would strongly advise you to plan parking in advance should you drive to visit us. You should also be aware of Edinburgh's Low Emissions Zones policy. We also recommend allowing extra time for your arrival as traffic in the city centre can cause delays. Please see the University's Transport web pages for more details:
Undergraduates
The University hosts undergraduate Open Days every year which will include an opportunity to find out more about specific subjects, to speak to academic, admissions and support service staff; and to visit university accommodation.
Postgraduates
Postgraduate specific events continue to be hosted virtually. If you will be travelling to Edinburgh and wish to visit your potential supervisor or programme team please email them directly to ask if this can be arranged.
For bookings of more than 5 people please email us:
Virtual Alternatives
You can also find out more about the University and what being a student here is like from the comfort of your own home, anywhere in the world.
Take our virtual tour and explore what it's like to study and live in Edinburgh
Unibuddy gives you the opportunity to text chat to our current students about their experience. You will be able to choose to connect with a range of students, from different countries, studying across different subject areas and levels of study.
You can view the event details and book on to the sessions below. Please use the tags to select sessions appropriate to your study level of interest: PG indicates postgraduate, UG indicates undergraduate.
Session recordings
Some of these sessions may be recorded. If they are being recorded you will be told about this during booking and at the beginning of the session. Any information that you provide during a session is optional and in doing so you give us consent to process this information.
Recorded sessions will be stored by the University of Edinburgh for one year and published on our website during that time.
By taking part in a session you give us your consent to process any information you provide during it.
Privacy statement
In order to facilitate online bookings for our events we use GeckoEngage and EventsAir - third party services which are not operated by the University of Edinburgh.
For more information about how we use your personal data, please view our privacy statement.