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 seafaring 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 he College welcomed the Princess Royal to commemorate the anniversary – five decades50 years after Lord Mountbatten opened the college for its first students.
Over that time, the campus on the bank of the Clyde has played host to thousands of aspiring members of the merchant navy.
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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 to train merchant navy personnel from across Strathclyde. And, from its inception, it has aimed toplanned 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 of the Nautical College’s trainee in the 1970s was Nick Nairn, the celebrity chef, who joined the merchant navy aged 17, where he serving until 1983.
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By 1985, the college’s expansion had made it the largest institution of its type supplier in Scotland and it was announced by the UK Government that all nautical education north of the Borderin Scotland 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.
Prior to the shift, only one in 20 of the college’s staff was female, and the site had just one women’s toilet.
The college’s 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, the college 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.”
READ MORE: Maritime history celebrated in Leith
Yesterday, Princess Anne visited the college and met cadets from the college’s College of Nautical and STEM.
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.
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