This selection of old pictures from the Evening News archive gives a glimpse of what was going on - protests against apartheid and education cuts, sit-ins over rent rises, Christmas food parcels for pensioners, fundraising in fancy dress and a men v women rugby match.
And that’s not to mention the campaigns - and battles - to elect university rectors. There are amazing pictures of Gordon Brown as Edinburgh University rector between 1972 and 1975, while he was still a student.
Scroll through the photos and turn the clock back 50 years to catch the atmosphere of Edinburgh in the 1970s.
You can also check out student life in Edinburgh in the 1950s and 1960s.
1. Fancy dress collection
Four students in fancy dress collecting money in Princes Street for the Evening News/Edinburgh Students' Charities Appeal in May 1977. | TSPL Photo: Albert Jordan
2. Christmas food parcels
Students from Edinburgh's Napier College with Christmas food parcels for old age pensioners at Sighthill community centre in December 1978. | TSPL Photo: Alex Brown
3. Celebrating new rector
Jonathan Wills celebrates becoming the new student rector at Edinburgh University in November 1971. | TSPL Photo: Jack Crombie
4. Anti-apartheid protest
Police keep an eye on anti-apartheid demonstrators protesting as South Africa's Barbarians rugby team arrive at the North British hotel in Edinburgh, October 1979. | TSPL Photo: Denis Straughan