A few of your favourite things

We love lists, so we have been asking alumni to tell us their favourite things about being a student at Edinburgh. The submissions have been varied, humorous and nostalgic, and offer a nice insight into the life of Edinburgh students over the past few decades.

We've created our top ten submissions for the categories of Place, Memory, Lecturer and Song. Did yours make the list?

My favourite Edinburgh place…

1. Bedlam Theatre
2. Middle Meadow Walk in Spring
3. Salisbury Crags and the Southsider Pub
4. Murrayfield
5. Back in 1949, the common room in Old Quad
6. Sitting on top of Arthur’s Seat watching the sun go down with perfect company on the evening of a final exam
7. Bobby’s Bar
8. Charlotte Square during the Book Festival
9. Cramond Island
10. Just walking down the streets and seeing the ever-changing skyscape

My favourite memory of university…

1. A sense of freedom (even though staying at home), and the discovery of Coca Cola
2. SO MANY! Playing the Mozart Double Piano Concerto…concerts in St Cecilia’s Hall
3. Coming home from the student’s union at 2am to find our flat full of firemen who stayed for tea
4. Asking a nurse from the Sick Children’s Hospital to dance. Random choice I thought, but we were destined to marry
5. Going to the computer centre in Buccleuch Place in Spring 1969 to run a computer program knowing how to pronounce Buccleuch
6. Stopping strippers from performing at Teviot Row Union
7. Tutorials, which were not only educational and insightful, but fun and stimulating. Oh yes and a drink in the Canny Man pub
8. The Meadows on a sunny day in June after degree exams all finished! But seriously – expanding my understanding of MANY subjects not only my main degree subjects
9. Arriving for Fresher’s Week never having even visited the city before
10. The day I passed my finals! And the dissection room (very social!)

My favourite lecturer…

1. My favourite most influential lecturer… Dr James P Duguld, Bacteriology department, who later became Professor at Dundee
2. Drew Scott, hands down. Brilliant mind, super approachable and supportive
3. Dr Alastair Thom for his respect for fellow members in the Department of Meteorology
4. Elizabeth Cowling – History of Art
5. Tom McGlew (Sociology) – he was involved in the infamous poster of the pregnant man
6. Professor Fred Stewart (Geology). Every lecture was a pleasure
7. Sir Alexander Gray (Politics & Economics, Poet). People came to his lectures even though they were not his students
8. Dr Evelyn Telfer. I spoke to her after she lectured at Fertility 2019 Conference! She is still so passionate about what she does
9. Dr Andy Kerr – Anatomy - he found my missing Physiology exam folder and I got a First as a result
10. Aubrey Manning (Zoologist)

My favourite song from the time…

1. Simon and Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water
2. Paul Evans – Seven Little Girls (Sitting In The Back Seat)
3. Toto - Africa
4. Buddy Holly – Peggy Sue
5. Gaudeamus Igitur
6. Bob Dylan – Blowing in the Wind
7. Roy Orbison – Pretty Woman
8. Edith Piaf – La Vie En Rose
9. Procol Harum – Whiter Shade of Pale
10. Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit

Spotify playlist

We've handily curated all song submissions into one playlist on Spotify:

Listen to 'Edinburgh Alumni Memories' on Spotify

Principal's Teaching Awards Scheme

We asked alumni for their submissions as part of an initiative to support the Principal's Teaching Awards Scheme. The scheme is an innovative programme that promotes collaboration between staff and students in order to enhance teaching and learning here at the University. It's fully funded by alumni and those who submitted their favourite things also made a donation the the scheme.

More about the Princpal's Teaching Awards Scheme