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University of Glasgow
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The University of Glasgow was founded in 1451, in Glasgow, Scotland, and, along with its contemporary institution, the University of St Andrews, it formed the Kingdom of Scotland's equivalent to Oxbridge. One of Scotland's ancient universities, the fourth-oldest in the English-speaking world, the University of Glasgow is one of seventeen British higher education institutions to be ranked amongst the top 100 universities of the world.
Originally founded by a papal bull issued by Pope Nicholas V, it is now independently ranked as amongst the top ten universities in the UK for teaching quality.
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The University of Glasgow was founded in 1451, in Glasgow, Scotland, and, along with its contemporary institution, the University of St Andrews, it formed the Kingdom of Scotland's equivalent to Oxbridge. One of Scotland's ancient universities, the fourth-oldest in the English-speaking world, the University of Glasgow is one of seventeen British higher education institutions to be ranked amongst the top 100 universities of the world.
Originally founded by a papal bull issued by Pope Nicholas V, it is now independently ranked as amongst the top ten universities in the UK for teaching quality. Glasgow is highly regarded as a centre for educational excellence, ranking as a top 20 university in various tables, and rated third in the UK for student experience. In addition to this, it was also the Sunday Times "Scottish University of the Year" in 2007. Glasgow is a current member of the Russell Group, as well as of Universitas 21.
The University's main campus is located on Gilmorehill, in the West End of Glasgow. The University also has a number of buildings elsewhere in the city; a facility at Loch Lomond; and the Crichton Campus in Dumfries, which is jointly operated alongside a number of other institutions.
Glasgow is currently the only University in Scotland with a full range of professional departments in Law, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and Dentistry.
History
The University of Glasgow was founded in 1451 by a papal bull of Pope Nicholas V, at the suggestion of King James II, giving Bishop William Turnbull permission to add the university to the city's cathedral. Its founding came about as a result of King James II's wish that Scotland have two Universities to equal Oxford and Cambridge of England. It is the second-oldest university in Scotland (the oldest being the 1410-founded University of St Andrews), and the fourth-oldest in the English-speaking world. The Universities of St Andrews, Glasgow and Aberdeen are ecclesiastical foundations, while Edinburgh was a civic foundation.
The University has been without its original Bull, issued by Pope Nicholas V in 1451, since the mid-sixteenth century. In 1560, during the political unrest accompanying the Scottish Reformation, the then chancellor, Archbishop James Beaton, a supporter of the Marian cause, fled to France taking with him for safe-keeping many of the archives and valuables of the Cathedral and the University, including the Mace and the Bull. Although the Mace was sent back in 1590, the archives were not. Principal Dr James Fall told the Parliamentary Commissioners of Visitation on 28 August 1690, that he had seen the Bull at the Scots College in Paris, together with the many charters granted to the University by the Kings and Queens of Scotland from James II to Queen Mary. The University enquired of these documents in 1738 but was informed by Thomas Innes and the superiors of the Scots College, that the original records of the foundation of the University were not now to be found. If they had not been lost by this time they certainly went astray during the French Revolution when the Scots College was itself under threat and its records and valuables were moved for safe-keeping out of the city of Paris. Nevertheless, the Bull remains the authority by which the University awards degrees.
Glasgow has enjoyed a (usually friendly) rivalry with the University of St Andrews since its creation, and with the University of Edinburgh since the foundation of the latter in 1583. Of all the universities and tertiary education establishments in Scotland, only Glasgow offers a complete range of professional studies including law, medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry, and engineering, combined with a comprehensive range of academic studies including science, social science, ancient and modern languages, literature, theology and history.
Teaching at the University began in the chapterhouse of Glasgow Cathedral, subsequently moving to nearby Rottenrow, in a building known as the "Auld Pedagogy". The University was given of land belonging to the Black Friars (Dominicans) on High Street by Mary, Queen of Scots in 1563. By the late 17th century, the University building centred on two courtyards surrounded by walled gardens, with a clock tower, which was one of the notable features of Glasgow's skyline, and a chapel adapted from the church of the former Dominican (Blackfriars) friary. This complex was one of the finest Renaissance buildings in Scotland, and its demolition, following the transferral of the University to its present site in 1871 (in less "rough" surroundings) was one of the worst acts of cultural vandalism in 19th century Scotland. Remnants of this Scottish Renaissance building, mainly parts of the main facade, were transferred to the Gilmorehill campus and renamed as the "Pearce Lodge". The Lion and Unicorn staircase was also transferred from the old college site and is now attached to the Main Building.
John Anderson, while professor of natural philosophy at the university, and with some opposition from his colleagues, pioneered vocational education for working men and women during the industrial revolution. To continue this work in his will he founded Anderson's College, which was associated with the university before merging with other institutions to become the University of Strathclyde in 1964.
Reputation
The University's teaching quality was recently assessed to be among the top 10 in the United Kingdom, along with its reputation as a "research powerhouse", whose income from annual research contracts also placing among the top 10 the UK, generating a total income of over £362,000,000 per year. The most recent Independent Good University Guide places Glasgow as second in Scotland, and one of only two Scottish universities in the UK's top 20.
Glasgow has the fourth largest financial endowment among UK universities at £133m, and the fifth largest endowment per student, according to the Sutton Trust, with investment in facilities of over £150 million in the last 5 years.
According to The Guardian University Guide 2009 and The Complete University Guide 2009, Glasgow University is ranked amongst the top 20 universities in the UK. In the most recent Times Higher Education World rankings of universities, Glasgow is among only a handful of UK universities in the top 100, placed at 11th in the UK and 73rd in the World.
The University is a member of the Russell Group of research-led British universities and was a founding member of the organisation, Universitas 21, an international grouping of universities dedicated to setting world-wide standards for higher education. The university currently has fifteen Regius Professorships, nearly twice the number held by the next nearest, Oxford.
The University has recently published its "Building on Excellence" strategy for 2006-2010. The University's strategic plan sets out the ambition to be one of the best universities in the world. The University aims to be recognised as one of the UK's top 10 universities and as one of the world's top 50 research-intensive universities.
As of February 2007, the University had almost 19,000 undergraduate and 5,000 postgraduate students. Glasgow has a large (for the UK) proportion of "home" students, with over 40 per cent of the student body coming from the West of Scotland, an additional 39 per cent from elsewhere in the UK, leaving 16 per cent from elsewhere in the world. More recently the University has started to attract more overseas students, particularly from Asia. There are 6,000 staff, of whom 3,400 are researchers, bringing in £130M of research income (2006-7). Twenty-three subject areas, and 96 per cent of staff, were awarded 5 or 5* ratings in the most recent 2001 Research Assessment Exercise.
The most recent rankings from Times Higher Education, compiled by QS, place Glasgow in the top 75 Worldwide for Arts, Humanities, Biological Sciences, and Social Sciences. On top of this, recent statistics also show Glasgow to be among the top 10 in the UK for both entry standards, as well as the percentage of students who go on to gain first or upper second class honours degrees.
The University is ranked equal 102nd by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities. In 2008, it was ranked in 73rd place in the Top 100 universities in the THE - QS World University Rankings 2008.
UK University Rankings | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995 | 1994 | 1993 | | Times Good University Guide | 20th | 31st | 29th | 20th | 22nd= | 27th | 28th | 20th | 23rd | 23rd | 21st | 20th | 23rd | 20th= | 26th= | 16th= | 17th |
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| Guardian University Guide | 20th | 32nd | 33rd | 33rd | 32nd | 25th | 16th | 20th | | | | | | | | | |
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| Sunday Times University Guide | | 31st | 26th | 30th= | 30th | 27th= | 30th | 29th | 26th | 26th | 24th | 23rd | | | | | |
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| Independent - Complete University Guide | 16th | 30th | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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| Daily Telegraph | | | 30th | | | | 34th | | | | | | | | | | |
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| FT | | | | | | | 21st | | 20th | 17th | 20th | | | | | | |
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Campus
The University is currently spread over a number of different campuses. The main one is the Gilmorehill campus, in Hillhead. As well as this there is the Garscube Estate in Bearsden, housing the Veterinary School and much of the University's sports facilities, the Dental School in the city centre, and the Crichton campus in Dumfries, operated jointly by the University of Glasgow, the University of the West of Scotland and the Open University. The University has also established joint departments with the Glasgow School of Art and in naval architecture with the University of Strathclyde.
High Street
The University's initial accommodation was part of the complex of religious buildings in the precincts of Glasgow Cathedral. In 1460, the University received a grant of land from James, Lord Hamilton, on the east side of the High Street, immediately north of the Blackfriars Church, on which it had its home for the next four hundred years. In the mid-seventeenth century, the Hamilton Building was replaced with a very grand two-court building with a decorated west front facing the High Street, called the "Nova Erectio", or New Building.
Over the following centuries, the University's size and scope continued to expand, including Scotland's first public museum, the Hunterian, described below. It was a centre of the Scottish Enlightenment and subsequently of the industrial revolution, and its expansion in the High Street was constrained. The area around the University declined as well-off residents moved westwards with expansion of the city and overcrowding of the immediate area by less well-off residents. It was this rapid slumming of the area that was a chief catalyst of the University's migration westward.
Gilmorehill
Consequently, in 1870, it moved to a (then greenfield) site on Gilmorehill in the West End of the city - around three miles (5 km) west of its prior location - enclosed by a large meander of the River Kelvin. Its new-build campus was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic revival style. The largest of these buildings echoed, on a far grander scale, the original High Street campus's twin-quadrangle layout. Between the two quadrangles Scott's son, Oldrid, built an open undercroft, above which is his grand Bute Hall (used for examinations and graduation ceremonies), and the buildings' signature gothic bell tower. The blond sandstone cladding and Gothic design of the building's exterior belie the modernity of its Victorian construction — Scott's building is structured upon what was then a cutting-edge riveted iron frame construction, supporting a lightweight wooden-beam roof. The building also forms the second-largest example of Gothic revival architecture in Britain, after the Palace of Westminster. An illustration of the Main Building currently features on the reverse side of the current series of £100 notes issued by the Clydesdale Bank.
The University's Hunterian Museum resides in the Main Building, and the related Hunterian Gallery is housed in buildings adjacent to the University Library. The latter includes "The Mackintosh House", a rebuilt terraced house designed by, and furnished after, architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Even these enlarged premises could not contain the expanding University, which quickly spread across much of Gilmorehill. The 1930s saw the construction of the award-winning round Reading Room (it is now a grade-A listed building) and an aggressive programme of house purchases, in which the University (fearing the surrounding district of Hillhead was running out of suitable building land) acquired several terraces of Victorian houses and joined them together internally. The departments of Psychology, Computing Science and most of the Arts Faculty continue to be housed in these terraces.
More buildings were built to the west of the Main Builidng, developing the land between University Avenue and the River Kelvin with natural science buildings and the faculty of medicine. The medical school spread into neighbouring Partick and joined with the Western General Infirmary. At the eastern flank of the Main Building, the James Watt Engineering Building was completed in 1959. The growth and prosperity of the city, which had originally forced the University's relocation to Hillhead, again proved problematic when more real estate was required. The school of veterinary medicine, which was founded in 1862, moved to a new campus in the leafy surrounds of Garscube Estate on the edge of the city in 1954. The university later moved its sports ground and associated facilities to Anniesland (around two miles (3 km) west of the main campus) and built student halls of residence in both Anniesland and Maryhill.
The growth of tertiary education, as a result of the Robbins Report in the 1960s, led the University to build numerous modern buildings across Hillhead, including several brutalist concrete blocks: the Mathematics building; the Boyd Orr Building and the Adam Smith building (housing the Faculty of Law, Business and Social Sciences, named after university graduate Adam Smith). Other additions around this time, including the new glass-lined Glasgow University Library, Rankine Building for Civil Engineering and the amber-brick Gregory Building (housing the Geology department), were more in keeping with Gilmorehill's leafy suburban architecture. The erection of these buildings in the late 1960s however involved the demolition of a large number of houses in Ashton Road, and rerouting the west end of University Avenue to its current position. To cater for the expanding student population, a new refectory, known as the Hub, was opened adjacent to the library in 1966. The Glasgow University Union also had an extension completed in 1965 and the new Queen Margaret Union building opened in 1969.
In October 2001 the century-old Bower Building (previously home to the university's botany department) was gutted by fire. The interior and roof of the building were largely destroyed, although the main facade remained intact. After a £10.8 million refit, the building re-opened in November 2004.
The Wolfson Medical School Building, with its award-winning glass-fronted atrium, opened in 2002, and in 2003, the St Andrews Building was opened, housing the Faculty of Education. It is sited a short walk from Gilmorehill, in the Woodlands area of the city on the site of the former Queens College, which had in turn been bought by Glasgow Caledonian University, from whom the university acquired the site. It replaced the St Andrews Campus in Bearsden. The University also procured the former Hillhead Congregational Church, converting it into a lecture theatre in 2005. The Sir Alwyn Williams building, designed by Reiach and Hall, was completed at Lilybank Terrace in 2007, housing the Department of Computing Science.
Chapel
The University Chapel was constructed as a memorial to the 755 sons of the University who had lost their lives in the First World War. Designed by Sir John Burnet, it was completed in 1929 and dedicated on 4 October. Tablets on the wall behind the Communion Table list the names of those who died, while other tablets besides the stalls record the 405 members of the University community who gave their lives in the Second World War. Most of the windows are the work of Douglas Strachan, although some have been added over the years, including those on the South Wall, created by Alan Younger.
Daily services are held in the Chapel during term-time, as well as seasonal events. Before Christmas, there is a Service of Nine Lessons and Carols on the last Sunday of term, and a Watchnight service on Christmas Eve. Graduates, students, members of staff and the children of members of staff are entitled to be married in the Chapel, and the Chapel is also used for baptisms, funerals. Current law in the UK precludes civil marriages or civil partnerships actually being performed in religious premises, although such unions may be blessed in the Chapel.
The current Chaplain of the University is the Reverend Stuart MacQuarrie, and the University appoints Honorary Chaplains of other denominations.
Library
The University Library, situated opposite the Main Building, is regarded as one of the best academic libraries in Europe, with the number of books alone topping two million. Situated over 12 floors, it also houses sections for periodicals, microfilms, special collections and rare materials, some of which are exhibited on the top floor. In addition to the main library, subject libraries also exist for Chemistry, Dental Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Education, and the faculty of Social Sciences, which are held in branch libraries around the campus. In 2007, a state of the art section to house the library's collection of historic photographs was opened, funded by the Wolfson Foundation.
The Archives of the University of Glasgow are the central place of deposit for the records of the University, created and accumulated since its foundation in 1451.
Crichton Campus, Dumfries
The University opened a campus in the town of Dumfries in Dumfries and Galloway during the 1980s. The Crichton campus, designed to meet the needs for tertiary education in an area far from major concentrations of population, is operated jointly by the University of Glasgow, the University of the West of Scotland and the Open University. It offers a modular undergraduate curriculum, leading to one of a small number of liberal arts degrees, as well as providing the region's only access to postgraduate study.
Non-teaching facilities
As well as these teaching campuses the University has halls of residence in and around the North-West of the city, accommodating a total of approximately 3,500 students. These are the Murano Street halls in Maryhill; Wolfson halls on the Garscube Estate; Queen Margaret halls, in Kelvinside; Cairncross House and Kelvinhaugh Gate, in Yorkhill. In recent years, Dalrymple House and Horslethill halls in Dowanhill, Reith halls in North Kelvinside and the Maclay halls in Park Circus (near Kelvingrove Park), have closed and been sold, as the development value of such property increased.
The Stevenson Building on Gilmorehill, opened in 1961 and provides students with the use of a fitness suite, squash courts, sauna and six-lane 25m swimming pool. The University also has a large sports complex on the Garscube Estate, beside their Wolfson Halls and Vet School. This is a new facility, replacing the previous Westerlands sports ground in the Anniesland area of the city, which was sold for housing. The university also has a boathouse situated at Glasgow Green on the River Clyde. It is out of here that the Glasgow University Boat Club trains.
Governance and administration
In common with the other ancient universities of Scotland the University's constitution is laid out in the Universities (Scotland) Acts. These Acts create a tripartite structure of bodies: the University Court (governing body), the Academic Senate (academic affairs) and the General Council (advisory). There is also a clear separation between governance and executive administration.
The University's constitution, academic regulations, and appointments are authoritatively described in the University calendar, while other aspects of its story and constitution are detailed in a separate "history" document.
Officers of the University
Chancellor
The Chancellor is the titular head of the University and awards all degrees, although this duty is generally carried out by the Vice-Chancellor, appointed by him. The current Chancellor is Professor Sir Kenneth Calman and the current Vice-Chancellor is the Principal, Sir Muir Russell.
Rector
All students at the University are elibigle to vote in the election of the Rector (officially styled "Lord Rector"), who holds office for a three year term and chairs the University Court. In the past, this position has been a largely honorary and ceremonial one, and has been held by political figures including William Gladstone, Benjamin Disraeli, Andrew Bonar Law, Robert Peel, Raymond Poincaré, Arthur Balfour, and 1970s union activist Jimmy Reid, and latterly by celebrities such as TV presenters Arthur Montford and Johnny Ball, musician Pat Kane, and actors Richard Wilson, Ross Kemp and Greg Hemphill. In 2004, for the first time in its history, the University was left without a Rector as no nominations were received. When the elections were run in December, Mordechai Vanunu was chosen for the post, even though he was unable to attend due to restrictions placed upon him by the Israeli government. The current rector of the University, elected on 28 February 2008, is Charles Kennedy, the former leader of the Liberal Democrat party and former President of the Glasgow University Union.
Principal
Day-to-day management of the University is undertaken by the University Principal (who is also Vice-Chancellor). The current principal is Sir Muir Russell who replaced Professor Sir Graeme Davies in October 2003. On 10 December 2008, the University announced that Professor Anton Muscatelli, Principal of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, would replace Sir Muir as Principal in August 2009.
There are also several Vice-Principals, each with a specific remit. They, along with the Clerk of Senate, play a major role in the day to day management of the University.
List of Principals and Vice-Chancellors
University Court
The governing body of the University is the University Court, which is responsible for contractual matters, employing staff, and all other matters relating to finance and administration. The Court takes decisions about the deployment of resources as well as formulating strategic plans for the university. The Court is chaired by the Rector, who is elected by all the matriculated students at the University. The Secretary of Court is the Head of University Services, and assits the Principal in the day-to-day management of the University. The current Secretary of Court is Mr. David Newall.
Academic Senate
The Academic Senate (or University Senate) is the body which is responsible for the management of academic affairs, and which recommends the conferment of degrees by the Chancellor. Membership of the Senate comprises all Professors of the University, as well as elected academic members, representatives of the Student's Representative Council, the Secretary of Court and directors of University services (e.g. Library). The President of the Senate is the Principal.
The Clerk of Senate, who has status equivalent to that of a Vice-Principal and is a member of the Senior Management Group, has responsibility for regulation of the University's academic policy, such as dealing with plagiarism and the conduct of examanitions. Notable Clerks of Senate have included the chemist, Professor Joseph Black; Professor John Anderson, father of the University of Strathclyde; and the economist, Professor John Millar.
Committees
There are also a number of committees of both the Court and Senate that make important decisions and investigate matters referred to them. As well as these bodies there is a General Council made up of the university graduates that is involved in the running of the University. The graduates also elect the Chancellor of the University. A largely honorific post, the current Chancellor is Professor Sir Kenneth Calman, former Chief Medical Officer and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Durham.
Faculties
There are currently nine faculties at the University of Glasgow. They are:
- Arts
- Biomedical & Life Sciences
- Education (formed when the University merged with St Andrews College of Education)
- Engineering
- Information and Mathematical Sciences
- Law, Business & Social Sciences
- Medicine
- Physical Sciences
- Veterinary Medicine
Notable alumni and staff
Many distinguished figures have taught, worked and studied at the University of Glasgow, including six Nobel laureates and two Prime Ministers, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and Andrew Bonar Law. Famous names include the physicist, Lord Kelvin, 'father of economics' Adam Smith, James Watt, John Logie Baird, Joseph Black, Sir John Boyd Orr, Francis Hutcheson and Joseph Lister.
In more recent times, the University boasts one of Europe's largest collections of life scientists, as well as having been the training ground of numerous politicians, including former First Minister Donald Dewar, fomer leader of the Liberal Democrats and current Rector of the University Charles Kennedy, Liam Fox, John Smith, Sir Menzies Campbell and current Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Students
Unlike other universities in Scotland, Glasgow does not have a single students' association; instead, there exist a number of bodies concerned with the representation, welfare and entertainment of students. None of these is affiliated to the National Union of Students: membership has been rejected on a number of occasions, most recently in November 2006, on both economic and political grounds. In common with the other Ancient universities of Scotland, students at Glasgow also elect a Rector (discussed above).
Students' Representative Council
The Students' Representative Council is the legal representative body for students, as recognised by the Universities (Scotland) Act 1889. The SRC is responsible for representing students' interests to the management of the University and to local and national government, and for health and welfare issues. Under the Universities (Scotland) Acts, all students of the University automatically become members of the SRC, however they are entitled to opt out of this. Members of the SRC sit on various committees throughout the University, from Departmental level to the Senate and Court.
The SRC organises RAG (Raising And Giving) Week and SHaG (Sexual Health at Glasgow) Week, as well as funding some sixty clubs and societies. All of the SRC's offices are located in the John McIntyre Building on University Avenue.
The Unions
In addition to the Students' Representative Council, students are commonly members of one of the University's two students' unions, the Glasgow University Union (GUU) and the Queen Margaret Union (QMU).
Historically, the GUU was all-male, while the QMU was for female students. These are largely social and cultural institutions, providing their members with facilities for debating, dining, recreation, socialising, and drinking, and both have a number of meeting rooms available for rental to members. Postgraduate students, mature students and staff can also join the Hetherington Research Club.
Glasgow has led the UK's university debating culture since 1953. In 1955, the GUU won the Observer Mace, now the John Smith Memorial Mace, named after the deceased GUU debater and former leader of the British Labour Party. The GUU has since won the Mace debating championship fourteen more times, more than any other university. The GUU has also won the World Universities Debating Championships five times, more than any other university or club in the series' history.
Glasgow University Sports Association
Sporting affairs are regulated by the Glasgow University Sports Association (GUSA) (previously the Glasgow University Athletics Club) which works closely with the Sport and Recreation Service. There are a large number of varied clubs, who regularly compete in BUSA competitions. Students who join one of the sports clubs affiliated with the university must also join GUSA.
Student clubs and societies
The University has an eclectic body of clubs and societies, including sports teams, political and religious groups and gaming societies. One of the oldest political societies on campus is the Glasgow University Liberal Democrats, founded in 1828 and one of its notable former Presidents include Ming Campbell, former leader of the Liberal Democrats.
The Glasgow University Engineering Society was once presided over by Percy Pilcher, giving it the claim to fame of having been the birthplace of controlled glider flight.
Media
There is an active student media scene at the University, part of, but editorially independent from, the SRC. There is a newspaper, the Glasgow University Guardian; Glasgow University Magazine; Glasgow University Student Television; and Subcity Radio. In recent years, independent of the SRC, the Queen Margaret Union has published a fortnightly magazine, qmunicate, and Glasgow University Union has produced the GUUi.
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