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 and collect a snapshot of the best parts of your life at Glasgow!
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 avenue@glasgow.ac.uk, with a photo if you have one, and you could feature in a future issue of Avenue and have your memory become part of our Archives. Here are a few inspiring memories from some of our well-known alumni below to get you thinking!
Students on their way to lectures in the late 1960s.
Main image, of the West Quadrangle in 1972, and image left, courtesy Archives & Special Collections
“When I went to lectures at the physics lecture theatre, it was freezing. When it rained, the roof would leak and you'd sit and get rained on during lectures. In the chemistry lecture theatre, it was really nice and warm and the lecture was an hour later. So that’s why I decided to concentrate on chemistry!”
Sir David MacMillan (BSc 1989)
“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. I was pretty studious, I’d say. Apart from Historical Introduction to Scots Law. We didn’t really get on. That was more of a “guess the multiple-choice answer”.
Susan Calman (LLB 1996)
“I absolutely loved first year at Glasgow, being in halls of residence. The walk across the Botanic Gardens every day into Byres Road, the freedom of those first couple of years. I wasn’t the most studious at uni, but I wasn’t lazy. I guess I was somewhere in the middle. But I did give a lot of my time to different sports clubs, then GUSA. There was a big social aspect to university as well, which was fantastic.”
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! As a vet student, my fondest memory of my time at the University would be seeing patients recover and go back home with their owners. That was always very rewarding.”
Laura Muir (BMVS 2018)
“I loved being part of something massive and ancient, and the culture of knowing that there were so many cool things happening around you. In every building, there were really smart people working on ground-breaking, world-changing stuff. You got to be at least some part of that.”
Karina Atkinson (BSc 2007)
“To graduate from such a beautiful university and have the photos in the cloisters afterwards was one of the happiest days ever. I’m so lucky to have studied in such a beautiful place. We’re all Glasgow graduates, my mum, my dad, my brother and me. I think that’s something that my parents, especially, love – that all four of us graduated from the same university.”
Amy Corbett (MEng 2012)
This feature was first published in April 2026.