About Philosophy at St Andrews
Facilities
Edgecliffe - home to the Philosophy departments
Edgecliffe provides exceptionally pleasant and comfortable surroundings for teaching and research. It contains a departmental library with about 5,000 volumes, three seminar rooms, a new video-conferencing suite, rooms for all academic staff, computing facilities, two secretarial offices, a common room and a kitchen.
The main University Library across the road has a very substantial philosophy collection, including around 100 current philosophy journals. The Arché Centre, which has its own secretarial staff, is housed in new quarters at 17-19 College Street, about a five minute walk from Edgecliffe.
The Philosophy Graduate Study Centre is housed in a separate building, facing the sea and immediately adjacent to the main building. It has a common room, study rooms, a kitchen and computer facilities.
There are is a busy programme of conferences, workshops and visiting speakers from universities in the UK and from abroad. The University's Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs and the Arché Philosophy Research Centre draw visiting scholars from many other institutions.
Here is a Brief History of Philosophy at St Andrews.
Special Strengths
- St Andrews is a large philosophical centre, with fifteen permanent academic staff, as well as additional post-doctoral fellows, visiting professors and graduate tutors.
- There is a wide range of courses on offer at every level.
- Teaching resources are excellent, including a class library located in the Philosophy building.
- There is a rich and varied programme of distinguished visiting scholars and lecturers, as well as a very active undergraduate Philosophy Society that organizes talks, debates, parties and other social events.
- The Philosophy Departments have been taking their final-year students to Burn House in Angus on reading parties for many decades, a tradition that continues to the present day.
- In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise, Philosophy at St Andrews was ranked joint-first with University College, London, amongst all UK Philosophy departments, with 40% of research awarded the highest grade (4*, 'world leading').