The University of Glasgow (Scottish Gaelic: Oilthigh Ghlaschu) was founded in 1451, in Glasgow, Scotland. One of Scotland's ancient universities and the fourth-oldest in the English-speaking world, the University is one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 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 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.
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 is the fourth oldest university in the English-speaking world. It dates from 1451 when King James II of Scotland persuaded Pope Nicholas V to grant a lead seal, or bull, authorising Bishop William Turnbull of Glasgow to set up a university.
For its first nine years, the fledgling university was based at Glasgow Cathedral. In 1460, the University moved to High Street, where, over the next 400 years, it continued to expand both in its scope and size. It was a centre of the both the industrial revolution and the Scottish Enlightenment.
As it grew however, the University was restricted by the encroaching overcrowding and squalor of the city and the expanding factories and railways, fruits of the industrial expansion it had helped to shape. As a result, in 1870, it moved to its current familiar west end location at Gilmorehill, then a greenfield site enclosed by a large loop of the River Kelvin.
As part of the move, Pearce Lodge and the Lion and Unicorn Staircase were moved stone by stone from the old site to the new and both can still be seen today. Meanwhile, the rest of the campus at Gilmorehill was centred on a neo-Gothic main building designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott; his son John Oldrid Scott, added the spire. From that time on, the University has stood as a landmark across the city, with its distinctive profile silhouetted against the skyline.
Campus
The University has three main campuses. Gilmorehill, the main campus with its distinctive outline silhouetted on the city's skyline, is in the cosmopolitan West End of Glasgow, just three miles away from the vibrant city centre and connected by by subway and frequent buses. The second campus, Garscube, houses the Vet School and outdoor sports facilities and is just four miles further out of the city. The University's Dumfries campus is located on the outskirts of Dumfries, in South West Scotland.
Library
The University Library, situated on Hillhead Street opposite the Main Building, is one of the oldest and largest libraries in Europe. Situated over 12 floors, it holds more than 2.5 million books and journals, as well as providing access to an extensive range of electronic resources including over 30,000 electronic journals. It also houses sections for periodicals, microfilms, special collections and rare materials.
Research
Over 2,400 researchers. 88 per cent of all the University’s research being internationally recognised. An annual research contract income in the top 10 of UK universities.
Strong RAE performance. The university is research-led.
Academic 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 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.
Despite some creditable performances by individual departments the university fared poorly overall in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), falling several places in the UK league table published by the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES). This was despite massive investment in its research strategy and infrastructure and a redundancy programme for staff whom the management considered would not be able to contribute to the university's new vision.
Faculties
- Arts
- Biomedical & Life Sciences
- Education
- Engineering
- Information and Mathematical Sciences
- Law, Business and Social Sciences
- Medicine (including Dentistry and Nursing)
- Physical Sciences
- Veterinary Medicine
University of Glasgow was ranked 73 in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking.
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