Heriot-Watt University, located in Edinburgh, Scotland, is an important center of brewing education. Heriot-Watt College has functioned as an education facility since the 1920s. In 1903, when there were 36 breweries in the city, the city administration decided to offer courses in brewing. With financial support from the city of Edinburgh, arrangements were made for the Chemistry Department to conduct brewing lectures by practical experts. A 2-year, part-time brewing certificate course was in operation by 1908 and in 1923 a full-time course for undergraduates was available. Prior to 1966, when the college was granted university status, the degree level qualification was known as the Associateship of Heriot-Watt College; this was the forerunner of the present BSc degree in Brewing and Distilling. Similarly, the present Postgraduate Diploma and MSc in Brewing and Distilling, now attracting students from all over the world, can trace their origins to the Associateship in Technical Biochemistry introduced in 1948.
In 1988 the autonomous International Centre for Brewing and Distilling, or ICBD, was established within the Department of Biological Sciences, now the School of Life Sciences. The ICBD has obtained considerable financial support from the brewing and distilling industries in the UK and overseas. At the same time, the Department of Biological Sciences (including the ICBD) moved from the center of Edinburgh to the University’s new Riccarton campus, situated on the outskirts of the city.
The undergraduate and graduate programs in brewing and distilling continue to be taught, with the MSc having a distance-learning component. Research activities have flourished and a number of PhDs in Brewing and Distilling Studies have been conferred.