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Glasgow Caledonian University is a university in Glasgow, Scotland.
Glasgow Caledonian began in 1875 as a small college with 110 students. Since then it has grown and diversified into one of the largest universities in Scotland with over 15,000 students as of 2004. Glasgow Caledonian University was constituted by an Act of Parliament on 1st April 1993 as a result of a merger between Glasgow Polytechnic and The Queen's College, Glasgow.
History
The Queen's College, Glasgow
The origins of The Queen's College, Glasgow date back as far as 1875 when the Glasgow School of Cookery was established. In 1908, the Glasgow School of Cookery merged with the West End School of Cookery, which had been established in 1878, to form the Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science.
Glasgow Polytechnic
Glasgow Polytechnic was originally two separate colleges: the College of Science and Technology and the College of Commerce. These colleges merged, and in 1971 the newly formed College of Technology opened to students, offering Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) degree courses.
The formal opening of the College took place in 1972. The College was under the governance of Glasgow Corporation until 1975 when the newly created Starthclyde Regional Council became the funding body and a new constitution was put in place. In 1985, ownership passed from the Regional Council to an independent board of governors who received their funds directly from the Scottish Education Department. In subsequent years, the instituition changed its name three times for promotional purposes: Glasgow College (1987); 'Glasgow College - A Scottish Polytechnic; and Glasgow Polytechnic (1991).
Glasgow Caledonian University
In 1992, The Secretary of State for Scotland approved the merger of Glasgow Polytechnic and The Queen's College, Glasgow to form Glasgow Caledonian University, which opened on 1st April 1993.
The aim of the new university was to offer non-elitist, high quality education and training to a wide and diverse range of students. It sought to collaborate with commercial and industrial organisations and other providers of education. The university initially offered more than 140 undergraduate and postgraduate courses within 3 faculties and 22 departments.
The original 3 faculty structure was made up of:
- Health;
- Science and Technology and
- Business.
In 2002 the structure was changed and the following schools were established:
- The School of Built and Natural Environment
- Caledonian Business School, the largest business school in Scotland
- The School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences
- The School of Engineering, Science and Design has an affiliated college in Oman; the Caledonian College of Engineering *. The School is made up of four divisions.
- The School of Health and Social Care consists of five divisions; Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Podiatry, Radiography and Social Work
- The School of Life Sciences has three departments; Biological & Biomedical Sciences, Psychology and Vision Sciences
- The School of Law and Social Sciences offers a variety programmes including the LLB, and is home to a number of research centres such as the Scottish Poverty Information Unit, Caledonian Heritage Futures Network and the Centre for Equality and Diversity.
- The School of Nursing, Midwifery and Community Health is one of the largest nursing education providers in Scotland, and is currently the designated Secretariat of the Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centres for Nursing and Midwifery Development.
Glasgow Caledonian University offers programmes in all of the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) funding groups except medicine, dentistry and teacher education. In May 2002, it launched the first Scottish Centre for Work Based Learning.
Currently the university has approximately 15,000 students, 1,500 staff, 25% of students studying part-time, 66% of students over the age of 21, and more than 700 international students from over 70 countries. (Source:Glasgow Caledonian University)
Campus
Glasgow Caledonian is located on a single campus site in the Cowcaddens area of Glasgow. The university used to have three campuses: Park Campus located in Glasgow's West End, Southbrae Campus leased from and adjacent to Jordanhill College of Education, and the current City Campus. However, Park Campus was sold to the University of Glasgow in January 2001 and Southbrae was given back to Jordanhill after the lease had expired.
League tables
Glasgow Caledonian was ranked:
- 91st out of 122 institutions by The Guardian newspaper in 2005
- 87th out of 115 institutions by The Sunday Times newspaper in 2005. This was from 114th in 2003 and 102th place in 2004
Notable alumni
Former students of Glasgow Caledonian University and her predecessor institutions include:
- Gary Lewis, actor.
- Jim Delahunt, television presenter.
- Rhona Martin, curler.
- Ian McLeod, businessman.
- Cathy Jamieson, Labour MSP.
- Andy Kerr, Labour MSP.
External links
"Glasgow Caledonian University"