GLASGOW UNIVERSITY. One of the great seats of learning in Scotland. It was founded in 1451 by Bishop Turnbull, its foundation being ratified by a Papal bull of Nicholas V. In 1460 James, first Lord Hamilton, bequeathed a tenement and four acres of ground to the Regents of the Pxdagogium; or college of arts, and the university was further endowed by Queen Mary, as well as by her son, James VI. of Scot land, better known as James I. of England, who issued a new charter to the institution. The chief prosperity of the university, however, dates from the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1864 the university buildings and adjacent lands were sold, and splendid new buildings were erected on a site overlooking the Kelvin River, at a cost of about £470,000r The4e were opened in 1870, and have been extensively added to since 1892. By acts of Parliament, in 1858 and 1889, the university has been entirely reorganized, and is now a corporation consisting of a chancellor, rector, dean of faculties, principal, professors, and students. The university court consists of the rector, the principal, the Lord Provost of Glasgow, and various assessors, representing both city and university. This body administers the property of the institution, appoints and regulates professors, and acts as court of appeal from the senate, which consists of the principal and professors, and regulates teaching and disci pline. The general council, consisting of various ex-officio members and all masters and doctors, meets twice a year to revise the business of the university. It elects the chancellor, four asses sors to the court, and, with the general council of Aberdeen University, returns one member to Parliament. There is also a students' represen tative council. The chancellor holds office for life; the rector, generally some man distinguished in politics or letters, is chosen triennially by the students. The duties of the latter are wholly honorary. The students retain many of the earlier customs and rights of medieval universi ties, of which the election of the rector is one.
They are still divided into four `nations'—Glot tiand (Lanarkshire), Transforthana (Scotland north of the Forth), Rothseiana (Bute, Renfrew,. and Ayr), and Loudoniana (all others).
The university grants degrees in arts, science, medicine and surgery, divinity, and law. It is possessed of a library of 175,000 volumes, an observatory, and a botanical garden, besides many special collections of books, apparatus, and the great Hunterian collection of coins, medals, and anatomical preparations. One of the im portant features of the university is the number of scholarships, exhibitions, and fellowships in its gift, among which the Snell exhibitions (q.v.) are the oldest and richest.
The University of Glasgow is rich in the number of distinguished graduates and teachers. Among them may be mentioned Bishop William Elphinstone, John Major, John Spottiswoode, Andrew Melville, James Melville, Robert Boyd of Trochrigg, John Cameron, Zachary Boyd, Robert Baillie, James Dalrymple, first Viscount Stair, Gilbert Burnet (Bishop of Salisbury), John Douglas (Bishop of Salisbury), Dr. Robert Simson, Francis Hutcheson, Dr. William Hun ter, Dr. James Moor, Adam Smith, Dr. Thomas Reid, Dr. William Cullen, Dr. Joseph Black, Dr. Matthew Baillie, Prof. John Miller, Thomas Thomson, Francis Jeffrey, J. G. Lockhart, Sir William Hamilton, Archbishop Tait, Prof. R. C. Jebb, Lord Kelvin, and Sir Joseph Lister. The four hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of Glasgow University was celebrated with much pomp in 1901; and in the various publications of that celebration is to be found much valuable information regarding the insti tution. Consult also: Stewart, The University of Glasgow (Glasgow, 1891) ; and the Glasgow University Calendar.