The University of Stirling is a UK research intensive campus university founded by Royal charter in 1967 in Stirling, Scotland. It is ranked among the top 60 universities in the world that are under 50 years old by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.[6] In the 2014 assessment of research in the UK, Research Excellence Framework, it was ranked 5th in Scotland and 40th in the UK for research intensity. Stirling is an international university with over 120 nationalities represented on campus.[8] It has international degree programme partnerships in Singapore, Oman and Vietnam. The University has campuses in Inverness and Stornoway.
Stirling was the first new university to be established in Scotland for nearly 400 years. The original site of the campus was selected from a shortlist of competing sites. The report's author, Lord Robbins, was later appointed the University's first Chancellor in 1968. In 1967 a house for the University Principal Dr Tom Cottrell was completed, designed by architects Morris and Steedman. It was listed as category A in 2009. The Pathfoot Building was completed in 1968 and originally housed the University's principal facilities. The building was extended in 1979 to include a Tropical Aquarium and again in 1987 to include a Virology Unit.
In 1970 development began on the Cottrell Building. It houses numerous lecture theatres, departmental offices, classrooms and computer labs.The University Library and Andrew Miller Building were completed in 1971. The world-renowned Institute of Aquaculture was opened by Princess Diana in 1982, the R.G. Bomont Building completed in 1998, the Iris Murdoch building opened in 2002 housing The Dementia Services Development Centre, and the Colin Bell Building completed in 2003. In 1993 the Pathfoot Building was selected by the international conservation organisation DoCoMoMo as one of sixty key Scottish monuments of the post-war era. It was also voted as one of Prospect's 100 best modern Scottish buildings. In 2002, the University of Stirling and the landscape of the Airthrey Estate was designated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites as one of the top 20 heritage sites of the 20th century within the UK.
