News
Issue 13 Autumn 2012 For alumni and friends living in North America
McGill celebrates long-standing ties with University of Glasgow
Welcome from the International Dean To honour the long-standing intellectual, academic and medical ties that bind McGill University in Canada to Scotland, Professor Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow was awarded an honorary doctorate at a ceremony held there in late May. Also honoured was Professor Timothy O’Shea of the University of Edinburgh. Accepting the award, Professor Anton Muscatelli said, “James McGill, the founder of McGill, studied at Glasgow in the 1750s and we have maintained strong and enduring connections with McGill over the past two and a half centuries. There are more than 100 Canadian students currently studying with us at Glasgow, adding greatly to the campus life and student experience. This is a tremendous honour not just for me personally, but also for the community of the University of Glasgow.”
Prior to the ceremony, Principals Muscatelli and O’Shea unveiled three commemorative benches in the James Garden on the McGill campus. The benches are made of Scottish granite that was quarried near Aberdeen. Each bench is made of three pieces of granite, representing the three universities, joined together in three different designs that are similar yet unique. Replicas of the three Scottish stone benches, made of Quebec granite, will be placed on a ‘mirror’ site at Macdonald College, as a complement to the installation on the main campus. “James McGill was motivated to found this university by a sense of curiosity and a spirit of social responsibility instilled in him as a young man in Scotland,” said Professor Heather Munroe-Blum, McGill’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor. “Today, this same spirit is to be found in the active student exchanges and research collaborations that build on the foundational ties between McGill and the esteemed sister universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. As a fitting finale to McGill’s 190th anniversary celebrations, I am delighted to award honorary doctorates to these distinguished academic leaders and international colleagues, Professors Muscatelli and O’Shea.”
From left to right: Professor Anton Muscatelli; Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea, Principal and ViceChancellor of the University of Edinburgh; Chancellor Arnold Steinberg and Principal Heather MunroeBlum of McGill University unveil three commemorative benches in James Square. / Photo: Owen Egan
I am delighted to report that Glasgow has risen five places from 59 to 54 in the latest QS World University Rankings which were published on 11 September. This is further good news for Glasgow, confirming our growing reputation as a world leading research intensive university. We are one of only three Scottish institutions in the top 100. Our strategic partnership with Columbia University has continued to flourish and we were delighted to welcome two speakers earlier this year as reported on in this issue. Our partnership with Columbia originally focused on collaborations in biomedicine and we are now exploring further opportunities in Economics, Engineering and History, amongst others. This autumn we have an exciting series of events planned including our celebration event in North Carolina. For almost 30 years Glasgow has been welcoming visiting students from Duke University as part of the Duke Public Policy Studies course which began with the first student cohort arriving at Gilmorehill in September 1985. The programme has continued until this day and we are delighted to be celebrating this long standing relationship.
Professor David Fearn International Dean for the Americas