Royal day as Princess helps mark college’s 50th birthday
ITS glass-and-steel building has become a signature feature on the banks of the Clyde, where it trains aspiring seamen in navigation, engineering and the latest technology.
Now the Glasgow City College’s Riverside Campus, popularly known by its former name of Glasgow Nautical College, is celebrating its 50th birthday.
Yesterday it welcomed the Princess Royal to commemorate the anniversary – five decades after Lord Mountbatten opened the college for its first students.
Over that time, the campus has played host to thousands of aspiring members of the merchant navy.
Paul Little, principal and chief executive City of Glasgow College, said:“we are delighted and greatly honoured that Her Royal Highness has visited Riverside to officially launch our 50th celebration year.”
Construction of the college began in 1967, two years before it opened. And, from its inception, it has aimed to train its recruits in a diverse range of nautical skills.
Glasgow’s position on the Clyde, with its strong manufacturing and shipbuilding heritage, made it the ideal location for a new college to train the youngsters who would oversee the country’s commercial shipping of the future.
In the early 1970s, the college also began to offer courses in a diverse range of subjects, including drama, beauty care, business, childcare and computing, fulfilling its pledge to provide education that was “nautical and so much more”.
One trainee in the 1970s was Nick Nairn, the celebrity chef, who joined the merchant navy aged 17, serving until 1983.
By 1985, the college’s expansion had made it the largest institution of its type in Scotland and it was announced by the UK Government that all nautical education north of the Border would be centralised in Glasgow.
The early 1990s saw the college modernise, especially in the provision of nautical and general education for women, offering courses on a mass scale for the first time.
Its next shake-up was a merger in 2010 with Glasgow’s Central College and Metropolitan, creating Glasgow City College.
Today, after a multi-million pound redevelopment in 2016, it stands in a new Clydeside building, with a hi-tech ship bridge simulator where students can practise using the latest technology.
Mr Little said: “Building design, learning and teaching approaches may have changed to match our tech savvy and digitally enlightened students, but what remains the same are the determination, persistence and vision to make dreams a reality for the 2,000 cadets, officers and engineers from across 135 different nationalities who study here.”
During her visit, Princess Anne visited the college and met cadets. She was shown a letter written by 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, her great uncle, who officially opened the original Glasgow College of Nautical Studies, and was introduced to two former students who met Lord Mountbatten that day in 1969.
The Princess also unveiled a commemorative stone relief designed by students and staff which bears the college motto.
IT is now 50 years since Glasgow College of Nautical Studies was opened by Lord Mountbatten and this week his great-niece the Princess Royal toured the Riverside campus to launch a year of celebrations. Some of the former students she met at the site were there at the official opening in 1969 and 50 years on, as part of the merged City of Glasgow College, the campus is still doing what it has always done: offering excellent educational opportunities to many thousands of students.
However, in the college sector as a whole there is much less to celebrate. Funding is way down on where it was 10 years ago. There has been a massive drop in student numbers and staff, and the financial support available to the students who are still there, has been failing to keep up with demand. Part-time courses have also been slashed, which is particularly regrettable as they are often the only option for students from deprived backgrounds.
On top of all of that, the sector is facing disruption over the pay dispute between management and lecturers. The lecturers’ union is demanding that salaries increase to reflect the rising cost of living while the Government says what the union is demanding is unreasonable. It means the mood is acrimonious and the future uncertain.
What makes it worse is the college sector is so important. Not only does it have a central role to play in meeting Scotland’s skills shortage, colleges provide an essential route into education and work for thousands of Scots from vulnerable or deprived backgrounds. With the attainment gap still a huge problem in Scotland, colleges have a central role to play in reducing it.
However, their capacity to do so will be severely limited as long as the sector is under-funded. The Princess Royal saw some of the excellent facilities available at the City of Glasgow’s Riverside campus, but the flexibility that colleges have shown in dealing with shrinking budgets can only go so far. If the college sector is to recover and go on to thrive in the next 50 years, then it will need a much greater show of support from the Scottish Government.