Your memories of Glasgow
As the University marks 575 years, we’re taking the time to look back and collect memories. You, our alumni, have helped to shape the University for nearly six centuries, and we know UofG has shaped you, too. We’d love to hear your #UofG575Stories – big or small – and everyone who enters will be in with the chance of winning a special UofG goody bag!
Your memory could be
- 'The place on campus I’ll never forget'
- 'The person at UofG who changed everything for me'
- 'The single best thing I learned during my years at UofG'
- 'The breakthrough I worked on'
- 'The moment that’s stayed with me to this day'
Send in your story to uofg575@gla.systa-s.com, along with a photo, and your memory could become part of our University Archives and feature in a future issue of Avenue. Here are a few inspiring memories from some of our well-known alumni below to get you thinking!
Main image, of the West Quadrangle in 1972, courtesy Archives & Special Collections
“When I went to lectures at the physics lecture theatre, it was freezing. The chemistry lecture theatre was really nice and warm and the lecture was an hour later. That’s why I decided to concentrate on chemistry!”
Sir David MacMillan (BSc 1989), Nobel Prize for Chemistry winner (2021)
“I loved the quads. I had English Lit there, in room 666, up a spiral staircase, and the whole building was remarkable. Glasgow is stunning – I think it's the most beautiful university campus I've seen.”
Martin Patience (MA 2002)
“We got a computer lab in my last year so we could use the new-fangled internet. Other than that, you had to actually read physical books."
Susan Calman (LLB 1996)
“I absolutely loved being in halls of residence in first year at Glasgow, the walk across the Botanic Gardens every day into Byres Road and the freedom of those first couple of years."
Mark Beaumont (MA 2006)
“I thought, ‘I belong here’. It was like that for the next four years, and the day I left, I thought, life is never going to be as good again. It was – but that's how I felt at the time.”
Ewen MacAskill (MA 1973)
“I was based at the Vet School in Bearsden, and I loved the grounds there. Walking to lectures in the morning along the river and canal was nice – on the days it wasn’t raining, that was!”
Laura Muir (BMVS 2018)
This feature was first published in April 2026.