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 visits are for potential undergraduates and postgraduates from all over the world, interested in any subject. The focus of the tour is on what it is like to be a student at Edinburgh, but you will also be sent a recorded presentation to provide you with further information about the University.
The campus visit is free to attend, but you must book your space in advance. Family and friends are also welcome, however, due to limited capacity on the tours we kindly request only one additional guest accompanies you on the tour. This is in order to ensure there is availability for prospective students.
If you have travelled to visit us with more than one guest they are welcome to explore the University at their own pace using our self-guided audio tour.
Alternatively, our University has many wonderful cafes and a beautiful local area to walk around.
Please note that we are unable to offer detailed subject-specific information as part of this visit, and it will not include 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 ticket.
Register now to attend a Campus Visit
More information
During our academic semesters the campus visits are hosted in slots of approximately 1 hour on Mondays and Fridays:
Central Campus:
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1200-1300 * This tour is suitable if you wish to attend either of the KB tours later in the day
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1300-1400 * This tour is suitable if you wish to attend the 1530 KB tour
King’s Buildings Campus:
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1415-1500
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1530-1615
The time slots available may vary based on bookings and other events. Currently available tours will be visible on the form when you are registering to attend.
Please note, due to events beyond our control there will be no tours over the following months:
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During June there will be no student-led campus tours on the King’s Buildings Campus. However, you are still able to book a student-led Central Campus tour. You can then either tour the King’s Building Campus in your own time using our self-guided audio tour.
or take a virtual visit:
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During August and September, Edinburgh and the University estate becomes very busy with the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and welcome activities for new and returning students. During this period there will be no student-led campus tours at either Central Campus or the Kings Buildings Campus. If you are visiting Edinburgh at this time, you will still be able to take a self-guided audio tour.
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 at Noreen and Kenneth Murray Library (EH9 3FG) around 10 minutes prior to your campus visit start time . If you use what3words for navigation, the Noreen and Kenneth Murray Library is: https://w3w.co/memory.select.flats
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. 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 the 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. We'd recommend using the Lothian Buses journey planner to help you navigate your way. Typical bus routes from city centre to the cental campus include the 27, 41 and 42. Typical bus routes from city centre to the King's Buildings campus include the 30, 37 and 47.
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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 . Please see the University's Parking web pages for more details:
When you book a campus visit your tour will be for the Central Area - George Square campus.
If you intend to study a subject that is taught at our King’s Buildings campus (KB), which houses the majority of the College of Science and Engineering, you will be prompted on the booking form to indicate that you would like to add this to your visit. For those who wish to attend the King's Buildings tour, we would suggest booking your Central Area campus tour time for noon - 13:00 which would allow you to travel to KB for the 14:00 tour start time. At some times of the year we may also offer a 1230 tour which would allow you to travel to KB for the 1500 start time. Additionally the 1300 Central tour will also allow you to travel to KB for the 1500 tour start time.
At this time the campus visit does not include:
- Easter Bush - home to our Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies
- Edinburgh BioQuarter - based in the "Little France" area of Edinburgh and the location of many medical research locations including: the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, the Queen's Medical Research Institute, the Chancellor's Building - University of Edinburgh Medical School, Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, Centre for Dementia Prevention, Edinburgh Imaging, NINE - Life Sciences Innovation Centre, and the Edinburgh Clinical Research Facility.
- Holyrood Campus - home to Moray House School of Education and Sport and the O'Shea Postgraduate Student Accommodation complex.
- Lauriston campus - home to our Edinburgh College of Art
- New College - home to our School of Divinity
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
We also continue to offer lots of ways for you to find out more about the University, and studying with us at Edinburgh 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.
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