A series of weekly podcasts has been launched by Dundee University as part of its year-long celebrations to commemorate the institution’s 50th anniversary – and The Courier will be carrying an article on the topic every Friday. Michael Alexander reports.
It’s August 1, 1967, and an unusual sight greets the people of Dundee as hundreds of students file up the Law dressed in red academic gowns.
At the top they admire the stunning views – an arresting vision in crimson – before heading back down to the newly designated Dundee University.
The red gowns were a tie from the 70-year history with St Andrews University which was now severed, leaving the Dundee University students free to enjoy their own institution.
Legend has it that the students who walked to the top of the Law that day in 1967 took binoculars with them, so they could see their old classmates across the water in St Andrews and wave!
The historic moment is recalled by the current principal and vice-chancellor of Dundee University, Professor Sir Pete Downes, in the first of a series of weekly podcasts – launched by the university – as part of their year-long celebrations to commemorate the institution’s 50th anniversary.
Released each Friday – we’ll be carrying them each week on www.thecourier.co.uk – they will tell the story of the university and the city, covering topics such as the rise of life sciences.
The podcasts – each four minutes long and written and read by someone attached to the university – will delve back to the very origins of the university and the first professors who created the new innovative University College, through to the famous alumni of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design.
Moments that changed the city forever are also included, such as the jute industry, whaling and of course, journalism and comics.
Anna Day, who is managing the project says: “We wanted to cover many of the big moments in the history of the university, but also of the city that we’re such a huge part of.
“The town and gown of Dundee are inextricably linked and that story runs throughout the podcasts.
“By the end of the year, listeners should have a really great picture of the university, the people and the ideas that have made us the Scottish University of the Year in The Times & Sunday Times Good University Guide for the second year in a row.”
In the first podcast launched on Friday January 13, Professor Downes tells how the university was created and how it grew into the centre for innovation and excellence that now exists.
Although the university is celebrating its 50th anniversary, the story goes back to 1881 when it was founded by two members of the Baxter family.
They made their money from the jute mills of the city and donated £140,000 to the creation of a college in Dundee.
“The path to this new chapter in our history was a long one,” says Professor Downes.
“In 1881, University College, Dundee, was founded with donations from the Baxter family, as an independent academic institution.
“It promoted the education of persons of both sexes and the study of science, literature and the fine arts.
“Amongst the earlier teachers were people of great eminence including D’Arcy Thompson, the biologist who invented mathematical biology and Sir Patrick Geddes, the botanist and town planner.
“They began a great tradition in Dundee of tacking problems by drawing on knowledge from different disciplines.”
Professor Downes explains how University College became part of St Andrews University in 1897.
This union served to “give expression to local feeling that there should be a vital connection between the old and the new in academic affairs.”
In 1963, the Committee on Higher Education under the chairmanship of Lord Robbins recommended in its report to Parliament that ‘at least one, and perhaps two, of its proposed new university foundations should be in Scotland’.
The government approved the creation of a university in Dundee, and in 1966, the University Court and the Council of Queen’s College submitted a joint petition to the Privy Council seeking the grant of a Royal Charter to establish Dundee University.
This petition was approved and, in terms of the Charter, Queen’s College became Dundee University on August 1, 1967.
“Our story doesn’t stop there, however,” adds Professor Downes, “ as the university has continued to grow and develop over the last 50 years, including creating a faculty of environmental studies in 1974 which validated degrees of the Schools of Architecture and Town and Regional Planning of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art.
“By 1988 all degree courses offered at the college were validated by the university. This collaboration between the two institutions led to a formal merger of the college and the university with effect from August 1, 1994.”
Other highlights include the Tayside College of Nursing and Fife College of Health Studies becoming part of the university from September 1, 1996.
And in December 2001 the university merged with the Dundee campus of Northern College to create the Faculty of Education and Social Work.
