Glasgow Caledonian University - Glasgow Caledonian University

Glasgow Caledonian University

In 1992, The Secretary of State for Scotland approved the merger of Glasgow Polytechnic and The Queen's College, Glasgow to form Glasgow Caledonian University, which opened on 1 April 1993.

The aim of the new university was to offer non-elitist, high quality education and training to a wide and diverse range of students. It sought to collaborate with commercial and industrial organisations and other providers of education. The university initially offered more than 140 undergraduate and postgraduate courses within three faculties and 22 departments.

The original 3 faculty structure was made up of:

• Health;
• Science and Technology
• Business.

In 2002 the structure was changed and the following schools were established:

• The School of Built and Natural Environment
• Glasgow School for Business and Society (formerly Caledonian Business School), consisting of six divisions: Accounting, Finance & Risk; Cultural Business; Fashion, Marketing & Retailing; People Management & Leadership; Public Policy; Strategy, Innovation & Enterprise.
• The School of Engineering and Computing. As of summer 2007 the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences and the School of Engineering, Science and Design merged into one school. The school has an affiliated college in Oman; the Caledonian College of Engineering. The School is made up of three divisions: Computing and Creative Technologies, Communication, Network and Electronic Engineering and Energy Systems Engineering.
• The School of Health and Social Care consists of five divisions; Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Podiatry, Radiography and Social Work
• The School of Life Sciences has three departments; Biological & Biomedical Sciences, Psychology and Vision Sciences. The Department of Vision Sciences is the home of the only Optometry and Dispensing Optics programmes in Scotland.
• The School of Law and Social Sciences offers a variety programmes including a BA in Social Sciences, an Msc in Social Research and an LLB. It is also home to a number of research centres such as the Scottish Poverty Information Unit, Caledonian Heritage Futures Network and the Centre for Equality and Diversity. The Social Sciences Department is divided into several 'subject groups' including Politics, History and Sociology.
• The School of Nursing, Midwifery and Community Health is currently the designated Secretariat of the Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centres for Nursing and Midwifery Development.

In August 2009 the Schools of Health and Social Care and Nursing, Midwifery and Community Health merged to form the School of Health.

Glasgow Caledonian University offers programmes in all of the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) funding groups except medicine, dentistry and teacher education. In May 2002, it launched the first Scottish Centre for Work Based Learning.

Currently the university has approximately 17,000 students, 1,500 staff, 25% of students studying part-time, 66% of students over the age of 21, and more than 700 international students from over 70 countries.

June 2011 saw the University open The Scottish Ambulance Academy, a facility that will provide the training needs of student Ambulance Technicians and Paramedics on behalf of the Scottish Ambulance Service.