Oral History Trail
Strathclyde memories
Our Oral History Trail is one of a number of events and other projects celebrating Strathclyde’s Diamond Jubilee – 60 years since receiving the Royal Charter which granted us university status.
The Trail is based on 'The University Experience' a fascinating set of interviews conducted in 2002/03 by researchers in the Scottish Oral History Centre with members of academic and support staff and students who were at the University of Strathclyde and its antecedents during the period of post-war education.
We selected clips and quotes from five of the interviews that we felt best represented the student and staff experience and installed them in locations across our city centre campus. Follow the trail to learn more about Strathclyde through the decades, and to discover corners of the campus you’ve never explored before!
You can read (and listen to) more about The University Experience on the Archives & Special Collections webpage.
"I remember when we were granted the charter..."
_(edit).jpg "Samuel Curran leading the procession after the inaugural congregation of the University of Strathclyde in Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, 1965")
Picture: Procession after the inaugural congregation of the University of Strathclyde in Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, April 1965
Find me: Royal College Level 2 (enter at 204 George Street, proceed past the war memorial and look up as you walk towards the lifts)
I think there was a buzz, I think there was a buzz that we thought 'Gosh, we're going to be a university' etc…But I could remember, there was quite a buzz and I remember when we were granted the charter, there was a service in the Cathedral and a lunch down for all staff down at the Kelvin Hall...There was a service to dedicate the new university and then to include everyone, absolutely everyone in the university was invited, and we had a very nice lunch in the Kelvin Hall and the time off to do that obviously, so, it was a big thing.
Karen Morrison
Secretarial, School of Mechanical Civil and Chemical Engineering from 1960s, then Academic Administrator
First impressions? Just that it was full of - fellas. I mean it was just, ahm, we were very definitely a minority. No, I enjoyed it thoroughly, it was quite different from school, quite different from school. We were treated very well, as girls. We got the front seat in all the lectures. We had - we got - down in the refectory we got preference. The boys all had to stand in this great enormous queue and the girls just sailed past and went in, but that was accepted, that was the way things were, but we were very well treated.
Doris
Pharmacy student,
Royal Technical College, 1945-1948
"I enjoyed it thoroughly, it was quite different from school..."
_(edit).jpg "Students at dining hall in the 1960s")
Picture: Students at the dining hall in the old Strathclyde Union building (John Street) in the 1960s
Find me: Learning & Teaching Building, Level 3 (enter at 48 North Portland Street and look up as you walk towards the Learning Village and teaching rooms)
"They lifted the roof off the Assembly Hall..."
_(edit).jpg "Group photograph including King Olav V of Norway at the ceremony for the conferment of his honorary degree")
Picture: Group photograph including King Olav V of Norway (second from left) at the ceremony for the conferment of his honorary degree
Find me: Royal College Level 4 (enter via the James Weir Building, follow signs for the Assembly Hall and look up as you approach Caffeine Lab)
The first graduation I went to was an honorary graduation for the late King Olav of Norway and that was held in the Assembly Hall and the Robing Room was in the heat engines lab in the Royal College. And really obviously the Norwegian national anthem was played in those days and on that occasion and there must have been something like 200 to 300 Norwegian students who sang it and they just more or less lifted the roof off the Assembly Hall.
Tony Martin
Staff member, Lecturer- Senior Lecturer,
Department of Geography, 1966 to 1997
A college with a great reputation all over the world, you know and I think the staff was very friendly. I didn't find any, shall we say, kind of racism in the students or in the class. Everybody was quite fair and fine, so I actually liked the place, it had its own culture, its own atmosphere which was very good at that particular time.
Bashir Maan
Studied Textile Chemistry & Accountancy,
enrolled 1953. He became a Glasgow councillor.
Awarded Honorary Doctor of Laws 1999
"A great reputation all over the world..."
.jpg "Students of the Royal Technical College in 1958")
Picture: Students of the Royal Technical College in 1958
Find me: Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy & Biomedical Sciences, Hamnett Wing Level 1 (enter at 161 Cathedral Street and look up)
"A very satisfying thing to try to do..."
.jpg "Official naming of the Curran building, October 1982")
Picture: Official naming of the Curran building, October 1982
Find me: Andersonian Library, Curran Building, Level 2, 101 St James Road (on the left at the foot of the stairs)
I believe - I’m still a born optimist, maybe mistaken to be an optimist, I hope not - but I believe tremendously in the talented young people of our nation - and other nations... we have so much talent in Britain that to try and give that rein full scope and freedom from restrictions is a very satisfying thing to try to do.
Sir Samuel Curran
Principal, Royal College of Science & Technology (1960 to 1964)
Principal & Vice-Chancellor, University of Strathclyde (1964 to 1980)
…the people who were advocating that we [Labour Club and Socialist Society] should be taking up the issue of Gay Rights or equality for homosexuals, as it then was, had to explain 'why' had to put the case for it. And we listened to the case and thought 'Aye, right enough'. And one of the things, I still use it to this day, that sank into my mind was the guy, to my shame I don’t know who he was, who said 'Look, we’re just playing up all this stuff about what’s happening in Chile and the miners and death in Vietnam but why should we condemn people for how they love each other rather than condemn people for hating each other?' And I thought 'Right enough, aye, aye.' And I’d never thought about that before, but again, it was partly because, to the best of my knowledge, I had never met anyone who was gay, but then you wouldn’t because they wouldn’t tell you. Up to that point it was like you were talking about someone from another planet, it was only later on I discovered that a number of my school pals and so on, as it turned out, were gay but nobody would ever have come out at that time.
Bill Speirs
Politics student – undergraduate from 1970, postgraduate from 1974,
General Secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, 1998-2006
"...nobody would ever have come out at that time..."
.jpg "An abstract image of two people holding hands")
Picture: an abstract image of two people holding hands
Find me: Learning & Teaching Building, Level 1 (look right as you walk towards the lifts)
"I suppose, in a way, it was unprecedented..."
_800x600.jpg "Female graduates of the Scottish College of Commerce,1953")
Picture: Group photograph of female graduates of the Scottish College of Commerce,1953
Find me: Lord Hope Building, Level 1 – beyond the meeting rooms, on the left
"…nearly everybody in my class at school was a first-generation person at university. That felt so good! This was really something! And obviously it was going to lead onto something good! You know, because, I suppose in a way it was unprecedented…
Barbara Graham
Student Advisory Service, 1974-2003
Director of Careers Service, 1995-2003
- Karen Morrison: Royal College Level 2 – enter at 204 George Street, proceed past the war memorial and look up as you walk towards the lifts
- Doris: Learning & Teaching Building Level 3 – enter at 48 North Portland Street and look up as you walk towards the Learning Village and teaching rooms
- Tony Martin: Royal College Level 4 – enter via the James Weir Building, follow signs for the Assembly Hall and look up as you approach Caffeine Lab
- Bashir Maan: Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy & Biomedical Sciences, Hamnett Wing Level 1 (enter at 161 Cathedral Street and look up)
- Sam Curran: Andersonian Library, Curran Building, Level 2, 101 St James Road (on the left at the foot of the stairs)
- Bill Speirs: Learning & Teaching Building, Level 1 (look right as you walk towards the lifts)
- Barbara Graham: Lord Hope Building, Level 1 – beyond the meeting rooms, on the left