In common with universities of the pre-modern era, Glasgow originally educated students primarily from wealthy backgrounds; however, it became a pioneer[citation needed] in British higher education in the 19th century by also providing for the needs of students from the growing urban and commercialmiddle class. Glasgow University served all of these students by preparing them for professions: law, medicine, civil service, teaching, and the church. It also trained smaller but growing numbers for careers in science and engineering.[9] Glasgow has thefifth-largest endowment of any university in the UK and the annual income of the institution for 2023–24 was £950 million of which £221.1 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £658.6 million.[4] It is a member ofUniversitas 21, theRussell Group[10] and theGuild of European Research-Intensive Universities.
The University of Glasgow was founded in 1451 by a charter orpapal bull fromPope Nicholas V, at the suggestion ofKing James II, giving BishopWilliam Turnbull, a graduate of theUniversity of St Andrews, permission to add a university to the city's Cathedral.[13] It is the second-oldest university in Scotland after St Andrews and the fourth-oldest in the English-speaking world. The universities of St Andrews, Glasgow, andAberdeen were ecclesiastical foundations, whileEdinburgh was a civic foundation. As one of the ancient universities of the United Kingdom, Glasgow is one of only eight institutions to award undergraduate master's degrees in certain disciplines.[14]
The university has been without its original Bull since the mid-sixteenth century. In 1560, during the political unrest accompanying theScottish Reformation, the then chancellor, ArchbishopJames Beaton, a supporter of theMarian cause, fled to France. He took 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 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 monarchs of Scotland fromJames II toMary, Queen of Scots. The university enquired of these documents in 1738 but was informed byThomas Innes and the superiors of theScots College that the original records of the foundation of the university were not to be found. If they had not been lost by this time, they certainly went astray during theFrench Revolution when the Scots College was under threat. Its records and valuables were moved for safe-keeping out of the city of Paris. The Bull remains the authority by which the university awards degrees.
Teaching at the university began in the Chapter House ofGlasgow Cathedral, subsequently moving to nearbyRottenrow, in a building known as the "Auld Pedagogy". The university was given 13 acres (5.3 ha) of land belonging to the Black Friars (Dominicans) onHigh Street by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1563.[15] By the late 17th century its building centred on two courtyards surrounded by walled gardens, with a clock tower, which was one of the notable features of Glasgow's skyline—reaching 140 feet (43 m) in height[16]—and a chapel adapted from the church of the formerDominican (Blackfriars) friary. Remnants of this Scottish Renaissance building, mainly parts of the main façade, were transferred to the Gilmorehill campus and renamed as the "Pearce Lodge", afterSir William Pearce, the shipbuilding magnate who funded its preservation. TheLion 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, pioneeredvocational education for working men and women during theIndustrial Revolution. To continue this work in his will, he foundedAnderson's College, which was associated with the university before merging with other institutions to become theUniversity of Strathclyde in 1964.
In 1973,Delphine Parrott became its first female professor, as Gardiner Professor of Immunology.[17]
In October 2014, the university court voted for the university to become the first academic institution in Europe todivest from the fossil fuel industry. This followed a 12-month campaign led by the Glasgow University Climate Action Society and involved over 1,300 students.[18]
The Imaging Centre of Excellence (ICE) was opened at theQueen Elizabeth University Hospital on 29 March 2017, including a Clinical Innovation Zone spanning 11,000 square feet (1,000 m2) of collaboration space for researchers and industry.[19]
The university's initial accommodation includingGlasgow University Library[20][21] was part of the complex of religious buildings in the precincts ofGlasgow Cathedral. In 1460, the university received a grant of land fromJames, Lord Hamilton, on the east side of theHigh Street,[22] 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. This foundation is widely considered to have been one of the finest 17th-century buildings in Scotland. Decorated fragments from it, including a complete exterior stairway, were rescued and built into its 19th-century replacement. In SirWalter Scott's best-selling 1817 novelRob Roy, set at the time of theJacobite rising of 1715, the lead character fights a duel in the New Building grounds before the contest is broken up byRob Roy MacGregor.
Front of The University of Glasgow on High Street, Glasgow, 1870. Original photograph by Thomas Annan and Richard Annan.
Over the following centuries, the university's size and scope continued to expand. In 1757 it built theMacfarlane Observatory and later Scotland's first public museum, theHunterian. It was a center of theScottish Enlightenment and subsequently of theIndustrial Revolution, and its expansion in the High Street was constrained. The area around the university declined as well-off residents moved westwards with the 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.
The new buildings of the University of Glasgow at Gilmorehill, circa 1895.The night view of the university's main building
In 1870, the university moved to a (thengreenfield) site on Gilmorehill in the West End of the city, around three miles (five kilometres) west of its previous location, enclosed by a largemeander of theRiver Kelvin. The original site on the High Street was sold to theCity of Glasgow Union Railway and replaced by the collegegoods yard. The new-build campus was designed by SirGeorge Gilbert Scott in theGothic revival style. The largest of these buildings echoed, on a far grander scale, the original High Street campus's twin-quadrangle layout, and may have been inspired byYpres' late-medievalcloth hall; Gilmorehill, in turn, inspired the design of the Clocktower complex of buildings for the newUniversity of Otago in New Zealand. In 1879, Gilbert Scott's son,Oldrid, completed this original vision by building an openundercroft forming two quadrangles, above which is his grand Bute Hall (used for examinations and graduation ceremonies), named after its donor,John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute. Oldrid also later added a spire to the building's signaturegothicbell tower in 1887, bringing it to a total height of some 85 metres (278 ft).[23] The localBishopbriggs blond sandstone cladding and Gothic design of the building's exterior belie the modernity of itsVictorian construction; Scott's building is structured upon what was then a cutting-edge rivetediron frame construction, supporting a lightweight wooden-beam roof. The building also forms the second-largest example of Gothic revival architecture in Britain, after thePalace of Westminster. An illustration of the Main Building previously featured on the reverse side of£100 notes issued byClydesdale Bank.[24]
The university'sHunterian Museum resides in the Main Building, and the related Hunterian Gallery is housed in buildings adjacent to the University Library.[25] The latter includes "The Mackintosh House", a rebuilt terraced house designed by, and furnished after, architectCharles 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 category-Alisted building) and an aggressive program 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.
The School of History building occupies what were formerly townhouses on University Avenue.
More buildings were built to the west of the Main Building, developing the land between University Avenue and the River Kelvin with natural science buildings and the faculty of medicine. The medical school spread into neighboringPartick and joined with theWestern 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 toHillhead, 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, around two miles (3 km) west of the main campus, in 1954. The university later moved its sports ground and associated facilities to Garscube and also built student halls of residence in both Garscube andMaryhill.
The expected growth of tertiary education in the 1960s following publication of theRobbins Report led the university to build numerous modern buildings across Hillhead in a development zone, originally comprising mainly residential tenements, that had been designated on the north side of University Avenue in 1945.[26][27] Several of these new buildings were in thebrutalist style; the Mathematics Building at the west end of University Avenue (opened 1968, demolished 2017),[26] theRankine Building at the east end of University Avenue (opened 1970),[28] the multipurposeAdam Smith Building (opened 1967)[29] on the crest of the hill above University Gardens, and the new Queen Margaret Union building (opened 1968) on the University Gardens site previously occupied by the University Observatory.[30] These were joined by others in variousmodernist styles; both the Library andBoyd Orr Building (opened 1968 and 1972 respectively)[27][31] were configured as tower blocks, as was the Genetics Building at the very south end of the campus on Dumbarton Road (opened 1967, named forGuido Pontecorvo in 1994, demolished 2021),[32] while the amber-brick Geology Building (opened 1980, named forJohn Walter Gregory in 1998, renamed forSilas Molema in 2021) was built to a low-rise design on the former site of eight terraced houses in Lilybank Gardens.[33]
To further cater to the expanding student population, a newrefectory—known as the Hub—was opened adjacent to the library in 1966, and the Glasgow University Union building at the eastern end of University Avenue was extended in 1965.
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, though the main façade remained intact. After a £10.8 million refit, the building re-opened in November 2004.
TheWolfson Medical School Building, with its award-winning glass-fronted atrium, opened in 2002,[34] and in 2003, the St Andrews Building was opened, housing what is now the School of Education. It is sited a short walk from Gilmorehill, in theWoodlands area of the city on the site of the former Queens College, which had in turn been bought byGlasgow Caledonian University, from whom the university acquired the site. It replaced the St Andrews Campus inBearsden. 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 School of Computing Science.
The Mathematics Building, on University Way adjacent to the Boyd Orr Building, was demolished in 2017 to make way for a new 'Learning Hub' intended to provide individual and group study spaces for more than 2,500 students, as well as a 500-seat lecture theatre. Built at a cost of £90.6million, it opened in April 2021 and is named forJames McCune Smith, the first African American to earn a degree in medicine and a University of Glasgow alumnus.[36][37] A further investment of over £900million is being made across the Gilmorehill campus, focused mainly on redeveloping the 5.7-hectare (14-acre) site between University Avenue and Dumbarton Road that was occupied by theWestern Infirmary between 1874 and 2015.[37][38]
The University Chapel was constructed as a memorial to the 755 sons of the university who had died in the First World War. Designed bySir 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 ofDouglas 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 ofNine Lessons and Carols on the last Sunday of term, and aWatchnight service on Christmas Eve. Graduates, students, members of staff, and the children of members of staff are entitled to be married in the chapel, which is also used forbaptisms and funerals.Civil marriages andcivil partnerships may be blessed in the chapel, although under UK law may not be performed there.[verification needed]
The currentchaplain of the university is the Reverend Stuart MacQuarrie, and the university appoints honorary chaplains of other denominations.
Glasgow University Library is situated on Hillhead Street opposite the Main Building. The current 12-storey building was opened in 1968 and hosts approximately 2.5 million books and journals, and provides electronic resources, including over 50,000 electronic journals. It houses sections for periodicals, microfilms, special collections and rare materials.[39]
In addition to the main library, subject libraries exist for Medicine, Chemistry, Dental Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Education, Law, History of Art, and the faculty of Social Sciences, which are held in branch libraries around the campus.[40] In 2007, a section to house the library's collection of historic photographs was opened, funded by theWolfson Foundation.[40]
The university opened theCrichton campus inDumfries,Dumfries and Galloway during the 1980s. It was designed to meet the needs for tertiary education in an area far from major cities and is operated jointly by the University of Glasgow, theUniversity of the West of Scotland and theOpen 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.[41]
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.[42] These include the Murano Street Student Village in Maryhill; Wolfson halls on the Garscube Estate; Queen Margaret halls, inKelvinside; Cairncross House and Kelvinhaugh Gate, inYorkhill. In recent years, Dalrymple House and Horslethill halls inDowanhill, Reith halls inNorth Kelvinside and the Maclay halls in Park Circus (nearKelvingrove Park), have closed and been sold, as the development value of such property increased.
TheStevenson Building on Gilmorehill opened in 1961 and provides students with the use of a fitness suite, squash courts, sauna, and six-lane, 25-metre swimming pool. The university also has a large sports complex on the Garscube Estate, besides their Wolfson Halls and Vet School. This is a new facility, replacing the previousWesterlands sports ground in theAnniesland area of the city. The university also has use of half of the East Boathouse situated atGlasgow Green on theRiver Clyde whereGlasgow University Boat Club train.
In common with the otherancient universities of Scotland the university's constitution is laid out in the Universities (Scotland) Acts. These Acts create a tripartite structure of bodies: theUniversity Court (governing body), theAcademic Senate (academic affairs), and theGeneral Council (advisory). There is also a clear separation between governance and executive administration.
The university's constitution, academic regulations, and appointments are described in the university calendar,[43] while other aspects of its story and constitution are detailed in a separate "history" document.[44]
The university's three most significant officials are its chancellor, principal, and rector, whose rights and responsibilities are largely derived from theUniversities (Scotland) Act 1858.
The Chancellor is the titular head of the university and President of theGeneral Council. They award all degrees, although this duty is generally carried out by the Vice-Chancellor, appointed by them. The current Chancellor isDame Katherine Grainger, a former rower who is Britain's most decorated female Olympian, the current chair ofUK Sport, and former Chancellor ofOxford Brookes University. She is an alumna of the university, with aMaster of Philosophy (MPhil) in Medical Law and Medical Ethics. She is the first woman to hold the office in the university.
Day-to-day management of the university is undertaken by theUniversity Principal (who is alsoVice-Chancellor). The current principal is SirAnton Muscatelli who replaced SirMuir Russell in October 2009.[45] 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.
All students at the university are eligible to vote in the election of theRector (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 includingWilliam Gladstone,Benjamin Disraeli,Bonar Law,Robert Peel,Raymond Poincaré,Arthur Balfour,Charles Kennedy and 1970s union activistJimmy Reid, and latterly by celebrities such as TV presentersArthur Montford andJohnny Ball, musicianPat Kane, and actorsRichard Wilson,Ross Kemp andGreg 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,[46] even though he was unable to attend due to restrictions placed upon him by the Israeli government. In 2014,Edward Snowden, an American computer specialist, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee, and former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor—who came to international attention when he disclosed a large number of classified NSA documents to several media outlets—was elected.[47] In 2017,Aamer Anwar a Scottish lawyer and former student of the university was elected rector[48] until 2020 when rector elections had to be postponed due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. On April 21, 2021,Rita Rae, Lady Rae a Scottish lawyer, judge and formerSenator of the College of Justice was appointedRector after a decisive victory.[49][50] The current office holder isDr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, who was installed in the position on 11 April 2024, after winning 80% of the vote and while under investigation by the University.[51][52]
The governing body of the university is theUniversity 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 theRector, who is elected by all thematriculated students at the university. The University Secretary is the Head of University Services and assists the Principal in day-to-day management. The current University Secretary is David Duncan.[53]
TheAcademic 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 allProfessors of the university, as well as elected academic members, representatives of theStudent'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 a 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 examinations. Notable Clerks of Senate have included the chemist,Joseph Black;John Anderson, father of theUniversity of Strathclyde; and the economist,John Millar.
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.
The University maintains an in-house constructed research information system containing data on all institutional research, including financial and personnel information. This Research System is closely linked to the "Enlighten" institutional repository, which is effectively a collection of research output in the form of publications and theses.[54]
In the financial year ending 31 July 2024, the University of Glasgow had a total income of £950 million (2022/23 – £944.2 million) and total expenditure of £658.6 million (2022/23 – £827.4 million).[4] Key sources of income included £387.8 million from tuition fees and education contracts (2022/23 – £403.8 million), £182.7 million from funding body grants (2022/23 – £185.9 million), £221.1 million from research grants and contracts (2022/23 – £220.7 million), £40.2 million from investment income (2022/23 – £23 million) and £7.3 million from donations and endowments (2022/23 – £8 million).[4]
At year end, Glasgow had endowments of £262.4 million (2023 – £234.3 million) and total net assets of £1.409 billion (2023 – £1.079 billion). It holds thefifth-largest endowment of any university in the UK.[4]
At the university's foundation in 1451, there were four originalfaculties: Arts, Divinity, Law, and Medicine. The Faculty of Divinity became a constituent school of the Faculty of Arts in 2002,[55] while the Faculty of Law was changed in 1984 into the Faculty of Law and Financial Studies, and in 2005 became the Faculty of Law, Business and Social Sciences.[56] Although one of the original faculties established, teaching in the Faculty of Medicine did not begin formally until 1714, with the revival of theChair in the Practice of Medicine.[57] The Faculty of Science was formed in 1893 from Chairs removed from the Faculties of Arts and Medicine, and subsequently divided in 2000 to form the three Faculties of Biomedical and Life Sciences, Computing Science, Mathematics and Statistics (now Information and Mathematical Sciences) and Physical Sciences.[58] The Faculty of Social Sciences was formed from Chairs in the Faculty of Arts in 1977, and merged to form the Faculty of Law, Business and Social Sciences in 2005, the two having operated as a single 'resource unit' since 2002.[59] The Faculty of Engineering was formally established in 1923, although engineering had been taught at the university since 1840 whenQueen Victoria founded the UK's first Chair of Engineering. Through a concordat ratified in 1913,[60]Royal Technical College (laterRoyal College of Science and Technology and nowUniversity of Strathclyde) students received Glasgow degrees in applied sciences, particularly engineering. It was in 1769 when James Watt's engineering at Glasgow led to a stable steam engine and, subsequently, theIndustrial Revolution. The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine was established in 1862 as the independent Glasgow Veterinary College, being subsumed into the university in 1949 and gaining independent Faculty status in 1969.[61] The Faculty of Education was formed in 1999 when the university merged with St Andrew's College of Education,[62][63] which had been formed in 1981 through the merger of two Catholic colleges:Notre Dame College of Education, Glasgow, founded in 1895 and Craiglockhart College of Education, Edinburgh, founded in 1920.[64]
On 1 August 2010, the former faculties of the university were removed and replaced by a system of four larger Colleges, intended to encourage interdisciplinary research and make the university more competitive.[65] This structure was similar to that at other universities, including theUniversity of Edinburgh.
The university is a member of theRussell Group of research-ledBritish universities[72] and was a founding member of the organisation,Universitas 21,[73] an international grouping of universities dedicated to setting worldwide standards for higher education. The university currently has fifteenRegius Professorships, more than in any other UK university.[74]
In theQS World University Rankings Glasgow climbed from 59th overall in 2011[75] to 54th in 2012,[76] then to 51st in 2013.[77]Glasgow places within the top 20 in the UK and 3rd in Scotland for the employability of its graduates as ranked by recruiters from the UK's major companies.[78]
In the 2008Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), almost 70% of research carried out at the university was in the top two categories (88% in the top three categories). Eighteen subject areas were rated top ten in the UK, whilst fourteen subject areas were rated the best in Scotland. The 2008 Times RAE table ranks according to an 'average' score across all departments, of which Glasgow posted an average of 2.6/4. The overall average placed Glasgow as the thirty-third-highest of all UK universities, perhaps reflecting the broadness of the university's activities. In terms of research 'power', however, Glasgow placed fourteenth in the UK and second in Scotland.[79][80]
As of 2022/23, the university had 21,165 undergraduate and 11,300 postgraduate students.[88] Glasgow has a large (for the UK) proportion of "home" students, with almost 40 per cent of the student body coming from the West of Scotland.[89] In the 2016–17 academic year, the university had a domicile breakdown of 71:11:18 of UK:EU:non-EU students, respectively, with a female-to-male ratio of 59:41.[90]
For undergraduate entry, course requirements range from A*A*A* (for second year entry) to BBB (for minimum requirements for Primary Teaching) inA-levels.[91] Glasgow had the third highest average entry qualification for undergraduates of any UK university in 2015, with new students averaging 420 UCAS points,[92] equivalent to ABBbb in A-level grades.
As the number of places available for Scottish applicants are capped by the Scottish Government as they do not pay tuition fees, students applying from the rest of the UK and outside of the UK have a higher likelihood of an offer.[93] For most courses, with the exceptions of Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine and Law, the university guarantees unconditional offers to applicants who have achieved AAAA or AAABB in one sitting atScottish Highers. The other components of the applicant'sUCAS form (such as predicted grades and the personal statement) are only taken into account if the applicant has not achieved these grades.[94]
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 its students. Due to the university's retention of its separate male and female students' unions, which since 1980 have admitted both sexes as full members, there are two independent students' unions, as well as a sports association and the students' representative council. None of these are affiliated to theNational Union of Students: membership has been rejected on a number of occasions, most recently in November 2006, on both economic and political grounds. A student-run "No to NUS" campaign won a campuswide referendum with more than 90% of the vote.[95]
Glasgow University Students' Representative Council is the legal representative body for students, as recognized by theUniversities (Scotland) Act 1889. The SRC is responsible for representing students' interests to the management of the university, tolocal andnational 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 the departmental level to the Senate and Court.
The SRC organizes Media Week, RAG (Raising And Giving) Week, and Welfare Week, as well as funding some 130clubs and societies.
The Glasgow University Union's building at No. 32 University Avenue
In addition to the Students' Representative Council, students are commonly members of one of the university's twostudents' unions, the Glasgow University Union (GUU) and the Queen Margaret Union (QMU).[96] Unlike many other student unions in the UK, membership to either GUU or QMU is not automatic and students must apply, for free, to become a member of either. Students are also permitted to be a member of both. These are largely social and cultural institutions, providing their members with facilities for debating, dining, recreation, socializing, and drinking, and both have a number of meeting rooms available for rental to members. Postgraduate students, mature students and staff were previously able to join theHetherington Research Club;[97] however, large debts led to the club being closed in February 2010.[98][99] However, in February 2011, students gained access to the old HRC building, situated at 13 University Gardens (Hetherington House) and "reopened" it as theFree Hetherington, a social centre for learning and lectures, as well as protesting the shutting down of the club. Attempts to evict this occupation resulted in complaints of heavy-handed policing and much controversy on campus.[100][101]
The separate unions exist due to the university's previous male-only status; the GUU was founded before the admission of women, while the QMU was originally the union ofQueen Margaret College, a women-only college which merged with the university in 1892. Their continued separate existence is due largely to their individual atmospheres. The GUU's focus is mainly towards people involved in sports and debates (as among its founders were theAthletic Association andDialectic Society), the QMU is one of Glasgow's music venues, and has played host toNirvana,Red Hot Chili Peppers,Biffy Clyro andFranz Ferdinand.
In 1955, the GUU won theObserver Mace, now theJohn 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 theWorld Universities Debating Championships five times, more than any other university or club in the series' history.[102]
Sporting affairs are regulated by theGlasgow 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, including Squash, Gaelic Football, Basketball, Cycling, Football, Hockey, Netball, Martial Arts andRowing, who regularly compete in BUCS competitions. Students who join one of the sports clubs affiliated with the university must also join GUSA. However, there are also regular classes and drop-in sessions for various sports which are non-competitive and available to all university gym members.[citation needed]
The community ofmature students—that is those students aged 21 or over—are served by the Mature Students' Association located at 62 Oakfield Avenue. The MSA aims are to provide all mature students with facilities for recreation and study. Throughout the year, the MSA also organizes social events and peer support for the wide range of subjects studied by the university's mature students.[103]
Glasgow University Mountaineering Club is an outdoor association whose membership is composed of students and staff. Its origins are known from the late 1930s when students were already meeting on theArrochar Alps; however, the club was officially constituted at the university in March 1941.[106]
With the World-Changing Alumni Award, formerly the Young Alumnus of the Year Award, the university is recognizing and celebrating the achievements of alumni who have graduated within the last 15 years and made a major contribution to the community, arts, sciences, or business.
The award was established in 2001 as part of the university's 550th-anniversary celebrations and is given out once per year. The trophy was donated by the Old Boys ofAllan Glen's School, is presented to the winning candidate at one of the year's graduation ceremonies or flagship events.[109]
^Includes those who indicate that they identify asAsian,Black,Mixed Heritage,Arab or any other ethnicity except White.
^Calculated from the Polar4 measure, using Quintile1, in England and Wales. Calculated from theScottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) measure, using SIMD20, in Scotland.
^ab"Mathematics Building".The University of Glasgow Story. University of Glasgow. 7 March 2017.Archived from the original on 20 March 2023. Retrieved19 March 2023.
^ab"Boyd Orr Building".The University of Glasgow Story. University of Glasgow. 19 February 2015.Archived from the original on 16 October 2022. Retrieved19 March 2023.
^"Rankine Building".The University of Glasgow Story. University of Glasgow. 25 August 2014.Archived from the original on 20 March 2023. Retrieved19 March 2023.
^"Adam Smith Building".The University of Glasgow Story. University of Glasgow. 28 January 2015. Retrieved19 March 2023.
^"Queen Margaret Union".The University of Glasgow Story. University of Glasgow. 27 November 2015.Archived from the original on 8 December 2022. Retrieved19 March 2023.
^"Library".The University of Glasgow Story. University of Glasgow. 5 August 2015.Archived from the original on 20 March 2023. Retrieved19 March 2023.
^"Pontecorvo Building".The University of Glasgow Story. University of Glasgow. 15 July 2015.Archived from the original on 20 March 2023. Retrieved19 March 2023.
^"Molema Building".The University of Glasgow Story. University of Glasgow. 19 October 2021.Archived from the original on 20 March 2023. Retrieved19 March 2023.
^"Where do HE students study?".hesa.ac.uk. Higher Education Statistics Authority.Archived from the original on 10 February 2018. Retrieved9 February 2018.
Moss, Michael S.; Munro, J. Forbes; Trainor, Richard H. (2000).University, City and State: The University of Glasgow since 1870. Edinburgh University Press.ISBN978-0-7486-1323-6.OCLC46433817.
Haynes, Nick (2013).Building Knowledge – An Architectural History of the University of Glasgow. Edinburgh: Historic Scotland.ISBN978-1-84917-124-3.OCLC851416179.
Davies, Peter V.; Ashworth, Susan.; Durndell, Helen; Hoare, Peter; Richmond, Leslie; Smith, Graeme, eds. (2016).The University of Glasgow Library: Friendly Shelves. The Friends of Glasgow University Library.ISBN978-0-9935185-0-8.OCLC952077879.
.jpg)
