King's College, Aberdeen in the context of "Regius Professor of Medicine (Aberdeen)"

The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated Aberd. in post-nominals; Scottish Gaelic: Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen and Chancellor of Scotland, petitioned Pope Alexander VI on behalf of James IV, King of Scots to establish King's College, making it one of Scotland's four ancient universities and the fifth-oldest university in the English-speaking world. Along with the universities of St Andrews, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, the university was part of the Scottish Enlightenment during the 18th century.

The university as it is currently constituted was formed in 1860 by a merger between King's College and Marischal College, a second university founded in 1593 as a Protestant alternative to the former. The university's iconic buildings act as symbols of wider Aberdeen, particularly Marischal College in the city centre and the crown steeple of King's College in Old Aberdeen. There are two campuses; the predominantly utilised King's College campus dominates the section of the city known as Old Aberdeen, which is approximately two miles north of the city centre. Although the original site of the university's foundation, most academic buildings apart from the King's College Chapel and Quadrangle were constructed in the 20th century during a period of significant expansion. The university's Foresterhill campus is next to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and houses the School of Medicine and Dentistry as well as the School of Medical Sciences. Together these buildings form one of Europe's largest health campuses. The annual income of the institution for 2023–24 was £264 million of which £56.9 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £188.9 million.

There are fifteen universities based in Scotland, the Open University, and three other institutions of higher education.

The first university in Scotland was the University of St Andrews, founded in 1413, with St John's College being added in 1418 and St Salvator's College in 1450. The other great bishoprics followed, with the University of Glasgow being founded in 1451 and King's College, Aberdeen in 1495. St Leonard's College was founded at St Andrews in 1511 and St John's College was re-founded in 1538 as St Mary's College. Public lectures that were established in Edinburgh in the 1540s would eventually become the University of Edinburgh in 1582. A university briefly existed in Fraserburgh between 1592 and 1605. In 1641, the two colleges at Aberdeen were united by decree of Charles I (r. 1625–49), to form the ‘King Charles University of Aberdeen’. They were demerged after the Restoration in 1661. In 1747 St Leonard's College in St Andrews was merged into St Salvator's College to form the United College of St Salvator and St Leonard. A new college of St Andrews was opened in Dundee in 1883, though initially an independent institution. The two colleges at Aberdeen were considered too small to be viable and they were restructured as the University of Aberdeen in 1860. Marischal College was rebuilt in the Gothic style from 1900. The University of Edinburgh was taken out of the care of the city and established on a similar basis to the other ancient universities.

There are fifteen universities in Scotland and three other institutions of higher education that have the authority to award academic degrees.

The first university college in Scotland was founded at St John's College, St Andrews in 1418 by Henry Wardlaw, bishop of St Andrews. St Salvator's College was added to St Andrews in 1450. The University of Glasgow was founded in 1451 and King's College, Aberdeen in 1495. St Leonard's College was founded in St Andrews in 1511 and St John's College was re-founded as St Mary's College, St Andrews in 1538, as a Humanist academy for the training of clerics. Public lectures that were established in Edinburgh in the 1540s, would eventually become the University of Edinburgh in 1582. After the Reformation, Scotland's universities underwent a series of reforms associated with Andrew Melville. After the Restoration there was a purge of Presbyterians from the universities, but most of the intellectual advances of the preceding period were preserved. The Scottish university colleges recovered from the disruption of the civil war years and Restoration with a lecture-based curriculum that was able to embrace economics and science, offering a high-quality liberal education to the sons of the nobility and gentry.

Marischal College (/ˈmɑːrʃl/ MAR-shəl) was one of the two universities in Aberdeen between 1593 and 1860, alongside King's College, Aberdeen, with which it merged to form the University of Aberdeen in 1860. Its nineteenth-century building, which began to be constructed in 1835 but was not completed until 1906, has served since 2011 as the headquarters of Aberdeen City Council. Today, it provides corporate office space and public access to services, adjacent to the Town House, the city's historic seat of local government. It is the second largest granite building in the world.

The building was used by the University of Aberdeen for academic purposes until the mid-20th century and less and less until the early 2000s. During this period the building was frequently rebuilt and expanded. In the mid-to-late 20th century, teaching and academic activities at the university began to move to King's College or Foresterhill (for students of medicine) and by the early 21st century a new purpose for Marischal College was required. After a number of unsuccessful proposals, the majority of the building was leased to Aberdeen City Council to be restored and refurbished as office accommodation. The extensive renovation was completed on schedule and significantly under budget and the building opened to the public in June 2011. The university has retained the Mitchell Hall and a number of other significant parts of the building for its own use, in addition to its museum stores (formerly the Marischal Museum).

Aberdeen University School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition contains the Medical school and Dental school at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. It also provides training and carries out research in medical sciences, nutrition, public health, dentistry, health sciences, physician associate studies at BSc, MSc, and PhD levels. The current school was formed from the merger of the former School of Medicine & Dentistry, School of Medical Sciences, and the Rowett Institute of Nutrition.

Medicine has been taught at the university since the founding of King's College in 1495. The formal establishment of a medical school supporting a broad curriculum appears to postdate 1787 when there were calls "for the establishment of a medical school" in Aberdeen.

The principal of the University of Aberdeen is the working administrative head of the university, acting as its chief executive. He is responsible for the overall running of the university, presiding over the main academic body of the university, the Senatus Academicus. The principal is normally also created Vice-Chancellor of the university, enabling him to perform the functions reserved to the Chancellor in the latter's absence, such as the awarding of degrees.

The office of principal dates to 1858 with the passage of the Universities (Scotland) Act 1858. The position was created with the amalgamation of the two existing ancient universities in Aberdeen, King's College (est. 1495) and Marischal College (est. 1593) in 1860.