Interesting, but old, article on Edinburgh University and Heriot-Watt University

Browsing through an old 1976 National Geographic magazine at my car dealership (yeah, it’s that old!), I came across an article on Edinburgh. Not only does the article contain a city map that includes Edinburgh University and Heriot-Watt Universities, it has an excerpt that you (especially a couple of H-W grads here) might find interesting:

“Edinburgh Leads in Education

The world fame of the Colleges of Surgeons and Physicians reflects the Scottish dedication to excellence in education. With 9 percent of the population of the United Kingdom, Scotland has 18 percent of the universities.

Of the eight Scottish universities, the University of Edinburgh, founded 1583, is the biggest (11,000 students) and the most internationally known and attended. It ranks high in teaching the traditional arts and sciences.

Heriot-Watt University, founded as a technical institute in 1821 and a university since 1966, doesn’t try to compete. A sort of Edinburgh MIT, it offers up-to-the-minute studies to its 2,900 students. Swift off the mark on North Sea oil, it established an institute of Offshore Engineering in 1972.

Heriot-Watt opened a new campus in 1974, on 250 country acres at Riccarton, six miles out but still in Edinburgh. In part this was a response to the outcries of environmentalists who rose against the University of Edinburgh’s expansionist methods. The University of Edinburgh has knocked down decrepit but still beautiful old buildings and replaced them with disharmonious modern blocks and towers in the old city. The modern architecture of the Riccarton campus, standing apart in a wooden landscape, is, by contrast, a lovely harmonious unity.

At Riccarton, Heriot-Watt has established the first university research park in Britain, where students can get on-the-job experience in a center for research and development. Tenants like Syntex, a pharmaceutical company, look good to the city fathers, too. Edinburgh wants industry to relieve growing unemployment, but it wants it light and clean.”

I visited the campus in 2000 and indeed it was lovely.

 

I wonder what tuition at Heriot-Watt or University of Edinburgh back in 1976 was going for?

 

Heriot-Watt MBA rices

When my colleagues and I became the US marketing agents in 1991, before things were officially launched, the nine courses cost $500 each.

 

That would be "prices" of course.

The business school believed in a free market economy, then and now, and so agents were free to sell the courses for any price they wished, or to offer incentive deals. As I recall, we tried a "three for the price of two" offer, but we held off on the "free haggis if you order by midnight tonight."

 

When I did the H-W MBA back in 1997, it was just under $1,000 USD per “black book”.