We’ve been named University of the Year

The Gilbert Scott Building at sunset

UofG has been announced as the Times Higher Education (THE) University of the Year.

Our work to redress historic links to slavery through a significant programme of reparative justice helped us to secure this prestigious title.

Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal of UofG, has said the award is an enormous honour. “We were the first UK university to recognise our historic links to slavery by researching our past and being open about all that we found. For any institution, talking about historical links to slavery can be a difficult conversation but we felt it was a necessary and right one for our University to have. For Glasgow, this initiative has had an immense impact on our institution today: in the way we teach, the way we think of ourselves and how we think about and interpret our history.

“Issues of race and racial justice are coming more to the fore in our society today not only in the UK but also more widely in the western world. So for me and the University of Glasgow, the work we are doing on reparative justice is also a platform for how we achieve racial justice, not just around our links to slavery but what it means today for a University that strives to move forward putting equality and justice at its heart.

“The programme of reparative justice we have embarked upon at Glasgow is a start but it’s certainly not an end point. I am extremely grateful to our students, staff and partners in the University of the West Indies, in the city of Glasgow and our advisory board who have worked to make this initiative a reality.”

"At a time when universities are too often on the back foot in public debates about value and relevance, Glasgow stood out as a shining example of what a university should be: institutions of courage and action, uniquely placed to tackle the biggest issues facing the world. By taking a moral position and leading the way in facing up to the legacy of slavery and making amends, it has set the bar high both for itself and for all universities.” THE judges