Records of the University of Glasgow, Scotland

Main record types are:

• landholding records, 1304 to date
• minutes, 1451 to date
• student records, 1451 to date
• administrative records, 1451 to date

The University or College of Glasgow (the terms were interchangeable) was established by a bull of Pope Nicholas V granted on 7 January 1451  at the request of King James II of Scotland at the behest of William Turnbull, bishop of Glasgow . The first meetings of the College were held in the Blackfriars in High Street of Glasgow or in one of the Cathedral chapter houses. In January 1460 Lord Hamilton gave the College property adjacent to the Blackfriars which remained its home until 1870  . The fledgling university was given permission to teach in arts and the three higher faculties of theology, law, and medicine. These higher faculties could only present candidates for doctorates while the Arts faculty could award bachelor and masters degrees. The curriculum in arts followed the studium generale, which was common to all European universities. This consisted of Latin, Greek, moral philosophy, logic and natural philosophy and mathematics. A degree course in theory lasted five years with bachelor's degrees being awarded after three years and masters after five. In practice few students graduated until the nineteenth century and most only attended for one or two years taking subjects of their choice. Although there was teaching in canon law and divinity before the Reformation, there was little teaching in medicine until the seventeenth century  .

The University was re-established by Andrew Melville in 1577  with a new charter of Nova Erectio granted by Regent Morton . This provided modest endowments from the lands of the cathedral and archbishopric, which were renewed periodically by the Crown. At first the teaching was undertaken by Regents, who taught every subject, but by the end of the seventeenth century  these had begun to be replaced by professors with responsibility for teaching individual subjects. Chairs were established in practice of medicine ( 1637  ), divinity ( 1640  ), Humanity (Latin) ( 1682  ), mathematics ( 1691  ), Greek ( 1704  ), oriental languages ( 1709  ), law ( 1713  ), ecclesiastical history ( 1716  ) anatomy ( 1718  ), moral philosophy, logic and rhetoric, and natural philosophy ( 1727  ) and botany ( 1760  ). These thirteen were known as the professors of the old foundation and formed the Faculty, which effectively controlled the University's finances. They were badly paid and depended for their income on publications, taking students as boarders in their homes and the fees they charged for their classes. During the seventeenth century  a fine building around two quadrangles was constructed in the High Street

Although the Medical Faculty could only award degrees to those who had already taken an Arts degree, this regulation was ignored and large numbers of undergraduates came to study medicine, particularly after the Glasgow Royal Infirmary was opened in 1794  . So as to distinguish between Arts and other students (mostly medical), the Arts students wore red gowns and were known as togati, while the other, who did not, were known as non-togati. This practice continued until matriculation became compulsory for all students in 1858  . By the end of the eighteenth century  the University reputedly had some 1,500 students with the majority studying medicine. Although the University was closely associated with the Church of Scotland , there were no religious tests on admission and only at graduation in arts. Professors were supposed to subscribe to the Westminster Confession, but in practice this formality was only used to block unwelcome appointments forced on the University by the Crown. This requirement was repealed in 1853  .

During the early nineteenth century  there was pressure to widen the curriculum to include new subjects, particularly in the sciences and medicine, which were resisted by the Faculty. New chairs were, however, established by the Crown, but their incumbents were not admitted to the Faculty. Consequently there was increasing tension within the University, leading to the Universities of Scotland Act of 1858  , which abolished the Faculty and replaced it with the University Court composed largely of lay members. By this time the professors were disenchanted with their antiquated building in the High Street . Moreover with the rapid growth of the City in the previous century the area had become very run down and seedy. The site was sold to a railway company to make way for a goods station and the University moved in 1870  to a new building, designed by Gilbert Scott , on Gilmorehill in the west end of the City. Two years later an undergraduate science degree was introduced. With the passing of further legislation in 1889  new chairs were established and the curriculum. In Queen Margaret College 1892  for the higher education of women became part of the University and women were admitted for the first time. Despite these reforms the number of students had only increased to just about 2,000 by the end of the century. One of the barriers to recruitment was the cost of the fees and it was only with the establishment of the Carnegie Trust in 1901  , which provided generous bursaries, that student numbers began to rise appreciably, reaching almost 3,000 by the outbreak of the first world war.

In 1913  an affiliation agreement was signed with the Glasgow Royal Technical College , whereby joint degrees would be offered in certain specified technical subjects such as applied chemistry, engineering and mining. From the outset this agreement was a bone of contention, which continued until the Royal Technical College became the University of Strathclyde in 1964  .

Following the reunion of the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church in 1929  , Trinity College , which had been established as the Free Church training college merged with the University's divinity faculty. The college had always been on the progressive wing of the church and had numbered amongst its professors such prominent men as T.D. Lindsay (father of A.M. Lindsay ) and George Adam Smith , later principal of Aberdeen. By the second world war there was a growing consensus that all medical, veterinary and dental education should be brought under the jurisdiction of the university sector. As a result in 1946  the Glasgow Dental School joined the medical faculty, to be followed in 1947  by the two independent medical schools in Glasgow, St Mungo's College and Anderson's College of Medicine . Three years later the Glasgow Veterinary College also became part of the medical school with a new hospital at Garscube . The Glasgow School of Architecture also became part of the university in 1964  .

In the post war years student numbers grew rapidly to reach over 9,000 by 1970  and almost 20,000 by the end of the century. With the restructuring of higher education in the St. Andrew's College of Education 1990s  joined the university to form for the first time a faculty of education. It also began to validate degrees provided by the Glasgow School of Art and Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) . In 1997  the University opened a new campus in Dumfries on the site of the former Royal Mental Hospital as a component of the University College of Dumfries . In 2001  the university celebrated the 550th anniversary of its foundation.

Material is currently being arranged by creating body.

By appointment - access to recent official records and records containing confidential information is restricted in accordance with University policies and relevant legislation.

University of Glasgow.

A fully searchable multi-level list is available via the Gateway to the Archives of Scottish Higher Education (GASHE) web site at http://www.gashe.ac.uk

Digital file level list available in searchroom.

Manual file level list available at the National Registers of Archives in Edinburgh (NRA(S)0431) and London (NRA13494)

To be confirmed.

Owned by the University of Glasgow. Applications for permission to quote should be sent to the University Archivist.

Reproduction subject to usual conditions: educational use and condition of documents.

This material has been appraised in line with standard GB 0248 procedures.

Retained in the custody of the University of Glasgow.

Further accessions are expected.

GB 0248 GUA DC 244  The Anderson College of Medicine.

GB 0248 GUA DC 144  Glasgow Veterinary College.

GB 0248 GUA DC 233  Queen Margaret College, Glasgow.

GB 0248 GUA DC 227  Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

GB 0248 GUA DC 246  St Mungo's College of Medicine.

GB 0248 GUA DC 084  Trinity College, Glasgow.

Brown, A.L. and Moss, M.The University of Glasgow: 1451-1996 . Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press  , 1996  .

Coutts, J.A History of the University of Glasgow . Glasgow , 1909  .

Murray, D.Memories of the Old College of Glasgow . Glasgow , 1927  .

The material is original.

Scotland is the location of all place names in the administrative/biographical history element, unless otherwise stated.

Fonds level description created by Emily Woolmore, GASHE project archivist, 17 March 2000  as part of the Research Support Libraries Programme funded project 'Gateway to Archives of Scottish Higher Education'. Administrative history by Michael Moss, University Archivist.