Glasgow enjoys the rare distinction of having been established by Papal Bull, and began its existence in the Chapter House of Glasgow Cathedral in 1451.

Since 1871 it has been based next to Kelvingrove Park in the city’s fashionable west end on the Gilmorehill campus, with its 104 listed buildings – more than any other British university.

A major addition, opened in 2002, houses the prestigious medical school, while a £15-million cancer research centre followed in late 2006.

The university took in St Andrew’s College to form a new faculty of education, which has been based on the Park campus, between Gilmorehill and the city centre, since summer 2002.

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The campus, formerly the Queen’s College, was acquired from Glasgow Caledonian University, and provides the extra teaching accommodation needed to locate the education faculty close to the main campus. The Vet School and outdoor sports facilities are located at Garscube, four miles away, while the innovative Crichton College campus in Dumfries is taking higher education to southwest Scotland with three-year degrees.

Development

A new student centre is under construction on the Gilmorehill site, while a £15-million small animal hospital for the Vet School is due to open early in 2009. The new environmental research building has won awards as one of the “greenest” in Scotland. The university is proud of its green credentials, having been named the second most environmentally friendly university in Europe by Grist magazine.

More distinctively Scottish than its rivals in Edinburgh or St Andrews, almost half of the students come from within 30 miles of Glasgow and three quarters are from north of the border. There was a high proportion of home-based students long before the city became fashionable, but the university also attracts students from some 120 countries.

The university finished in the top 20 in the latest National Student Survey, claiming the most satisfied undergraduates in Britain in business, computing and physical geography and environmental science. Glasgow has adopted an increasingly outward-looking style in recent years, marked by two Queen’s Anniversary prizes for opening up artistic, scientific and cultural resources and taking computing to local communities.

A “synergy” agreement with neighbouring Strathclyde University has led to the development of teaching and research partnerships, the latest establishing a single department of naval architecture and marine engineering. Not that Glasgow is a stranger to innovation: it was the first university in Britain to have a school of engineering, for example, and the first in Scotland to have a computer.

Access

The huge science faculty is strong, having received top ratings for teaching in six subjects. Applications for science degrees reflect this quality, having risen by 25 per cent since the mid 1990s. Among other sources, the university has seen a steady flow of applicants from schools taking part in the university’s access scheme. However, two years of healthy increases in applications came to an end in 2007 and continued downwards at the start of 2008.

The last research assessments were an improvement on a disappointing set of results in 1996, with arts and social sciences leading the way. Four subjects were rated internationally outstanding – English, European studies, psychology and sports science – a further 19 achieving grade 5 and 96 per cent of researchers were in the top three categories.

International

Overseas recruitment has remained strong, especially in engineering. Glasgow is also taking an active role in Universitas 21, the worldwide group of universities, involving partnerships on five continents. But the home market has not been overlooked. The Club 21 programme, which provides students with paid work experience placements, involves more than 50 employers from Abbey to T-Mobile, some of whom sponsor undergraduates at £1,000 a year, as part of an arrangement to forge closer links with local business.

Another ten scholarships for students from poor backgrounds commemorate the life of Donald Dewar, Scotland’s first First Minister and a well-respected Glasgow graduate. Over a fifth of the students are from working-class homes, one in six from an area without a tradition of higher education. Most like the combination of campus and city life, with the relatively low cost of living an added attraction – the city has been rated among the most costeffective in which to study. But the dropout rate of more than 14 per cent is above the average for the subjects on offer and entry qualifications. Undergraduates have the choice of two students’ unions, plus a sports union supporting 46 different clubs and activities.

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