Our profile

Leaders in ideas and solutions

Our heritage dates back to 1821 since when our community of scholars has been developing transformational solutions to specific global problems. We are specialists in engineering, business and science and leaders in innovative global education for a future world.

We are global

  • We have five campuses across the world: Edinburgh, Scottish Borders, Orkney, Dubai and Malaysia, as well as 53 Approved Learning Partners (ALPs) and educational collaborative partners in 150 countries
  • We have over 29,000 students studying with us at our campuses and online through distance learning (year end 2017)
  • One third of our on-campus students studying in Scotland are from outside the UK, making Heriot-Watt one of the most internationally diversified of any UK university

We are connected

  • The Watt Club is oldest graduate club in the UK
  • We have over 130,000 alumni worldwide in over 190 countries
  • We are the university of choice for business and industry​ and our graduates are sought by the best organisations worldwide

We are experts and leaders

  • The Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 ranked 86.8% of Heriot-Watt's research as world-leading and internationally excellent.
  • We are 9th in the UK and 1st in Scotland for research impact
  • Over 80% of our academic staff are currently engaged in research at internationally recognised levels
  • We are top 250 worldwide. Ranking 235th in the world, 32nd in UK, and 5th in Scotland in the QS World University Rankings 2024.
  • We ranked in 28th place out of 123 UK universities for the overall student experience in the National Student Survey 2021.
  • We are ranked top 20 in the UK for Engineering in the THE World University Rankings 2024
  • 95% of graduates are in employment or further study within six months of graduation