university status. On 1 February 1966 the recommendation was enacted, as the institution officially became Heriot-Watt University.
=== Heriot-Watt University ===
The first personal chair was appointed in 1974.
While Heriot-Watt continued to expand in the centre of Edinburgh after attaining university status, the institution had grown big enough that relocation was felt to be desirable. In 1966 Midlothian County Council gifted the Riccarton estate north of Currie to the university, and in 1969 work began on transforming the site into a future campus. The process of relocation to Riccarton continued until 1992, with teaching and facilities divided between the new campus and the city centre until then.
The university has continued to grow after completing its move to Riccarton, constructing additional student halls, a sports centre and a postgraduate centre on the site. The institution also expanded beyond Edinburgh, merging with the Scottish College of Textiles to create a campus in the Scottish Borders in 1998, and opening a campus in Dubai in 2006 and a campus in Putrajaya, Malaysia, in 2012.
In recent years, the university's campus in Edinburgh has benefited from major infrastructural projects worth £60 million, with another £68 million worth investment announced. These include the UK's first purpose-built graduate centre (£6 million), Scotland's elite Oriam Sports Performance Centre facility (£33 million), and the UK's first FlexBIO flexible downstream bioprocessing centre (£2 million). It is also constructing a 5,000 m2 Watt Innovation Building supporting Global Research, Innovation and Discovery [GRID] to boost 'creativity and ideas generation' on the university's growing Edinburgh campus.
The university has plans to host a major £65 million film studio and a £2.5 million academic partnership with the oil and gas firm Total.
However, in 2017 it was also announced that a major budget shortfall and the impact of Brexit would result in Heriot-Watt shedding 100 jobs by voluntary redundancies.
== Campuses ==
Heriot-Watt …
