computing - school of science & engineering - university of dundee
Dundee
In Dundee in 1881, Miss Mary Ann Baxter and her cousin, John Boyd Baxter - two
of the famous Baxter family, who made their money from the Jute mills of the
city - donated £140,000 to the creation of a college in Dundee. This was the
beginning of the University of Dundee.From the start it was an institution that
stood out. Instead of professors with ivory tower backgrounds, it employed
bright young people who realised that to compete in the modern world, Great
Britain needed to improve its technological output. William Peterson, who was a
Latinist and Scholar, became the inaugural Principal in 1882 at the tender age
of 26. Patrick Geddes, who didn’t have a degree, was professor of botany and one
of the foremost thinkers in the world. Central to the institution's founding
deed was that it should be used for "promoting the education of persons of both
sexes, and the study of science, literature, and the fine arts”. The Baxters'
plans were for University College Dundee to offer a full range of subjects
(other than Divinity – no-one was to be made to declare their religious
convictions and no religious subject was to be taught).
