Our Community

Our values-led approach puts our staff, students and alumni at the heart of everything we do.

Our graduates are sought by the best organisations worldwide. Our graduate association, The Watt Club, is the oldest organisation of its kind in the UK, with around 150,000 alumni worldwide in over 190 countries, and we actively engage with our alumni through a range of tailored programmes in different parts of the world.

The University works in close partnership with its students to create an inspiring and supportive environment where students with diverse backgrounds are able to study together, to learn and develop, and to achieve their ambitions. Student members are represented on the Court (the University’s governing body), the Senate and key committees of the University, contributing to policy making and governance oversight.

The Global Student Liaison Committee, a committee of the Court, oversees and provides assurance to the Court on the arrangements that the University has in place to support the full engagement and representation of our students and the quality of the student experience.

The Student Union in Scotland, the Student Council in Dubai, and the Student Association in Malaysia work with the University to develop a Student Partnership Agreement each year, jointly agreeing the student experience related priorities and actions for the year ahead.

The University has a long history of social inclusion, while being committed to rigorous selection of students on competitive merit. The University strives to achieve a student profile that is socially inclusive; for example, in recent years we have achieved a step change increase in the numbers of entrants from the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Scotland and entrants articulating with full credit for qualifications achieved at Scottish colleges.

We are proud to be among the largest providers of Graduate Apprenticeships (GAs) in Scotland, with more than 200 places having been recently awarded annually, to help meet the needs of local and national employers. GAs are offered across a variety of business, technology and engineering courses involving a total of more than 70 companies and public bodies.

We employ over 2500 members of staff across the globe - more than 1100 academic and 1400 professional services colleagues.

As part of celebrating Heriot-Watt’s bicentenary, we set ourselves the target of recruiting one hundred outstanding research academics to complement our existing world-class research across our campus locations.

The University was granted institutional Athena SWAN Bronze status in 2016, recognising our commitment to advancing careers of women in Higher Education and research.

The University has Gold accreditation from Healthy Working Lives.

We are a Disability Confident, an Armed Services Covenant and a Living Wage employer.

View Jobs at Heriot‑Watt University →