University of Glasgow

The most arresting feature of the University of Glasgow is its main building, which stands formidably on the top of a hill overlooking the city beneath. There are tube stations on either side of the campus, which take you quickly into the centre of town and to and from the train station (3 hours north from Manchester).

Another distinctive attribute of Glasgow is its number of Student Unions. There are two separate Unions to satisfy students’ social needs, a representative council for aid and assistance, and an athletics union for all sporting requirements. Halls of residence, meanwhile, are a bus ride away to the north west. Around the university is Glasgow’s West End, a smart part of town with good restaurants and bars.

Notable graduates include inventor John Logie Baird, author William Boyd, and explorer David Livingstone.

"When I went to Glasgow University in 1959 I began to concentrate on athletics and eventually ran for the UK in the 1964 Olympics. I was studiously and publicly teetotal among a group of enthusiastic student politicians who liked a drink, to put it mildly! Among my friends I became a kind of alibi. If they were out with me they could assure their doubting parents that their consumption must have been moderate, and that heavy drinking must have been taking place elsewhere!" Sir Menzies Campbell, Glasgow University