City Profile
Scotland’s largest and most populous city, Glasgow is the third most populous city in the United Kingdom with an estimated city population of 600,000. The city welcomes a growing number of international students, and achieves a particularly high score for student mix, providing opportunities for students to meet people from different backgrounds and cultures.
Glasgow is famous for its showcase of Scottish culture. There are many museums and art galleries to discover, and the University of Glasgow’s Hunterian is actually the oldest museum in Scotland. The city is also especially known for its music scene and the fierce rivalry between its two biggest football clubs, Rangers and Celtic. There is always something to discover in Glasgow, and if you like festivals then it is the perfect place to be. Throughout the year, you can enjoy festivals such as the Glasgow International Comedy Festival, West End Film Festival, Merchant City Festival, and a whole lot more.
Universities
Glasgow is home to two universities in the top 300 of the QS World University Rankings 2020; the University of Glasgow, which ranks 67th, and the University of Strathclyde. The following are the universities that you can choose from within the city:
· University of Glasgow
· Strathclyde University
· Glasgow Caledonian University
· University of West Scotland
· Glasgow Kelvin College
· The Glasgow School of Art
· City of Glasgow College
· Glasgow Clyde College
· Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
· University of the West of Scotland (formerly the University of Paisley)
· The University of Glasgow
Modes of Transportation
Glasgow has a large urban transport system. It boasts 3 international airports within 45 minutes of the city center: Glasgow Airport, Glasgow Prestwick Airport, and Edinburgh Airport. This means you can easily explore the rest of Europe, and beyond. It’s also very quick and cheap to get around Glasgow thanks to the city’s subway. Nicknamed “The Clockwork Orange” because of its distinctive color, it’s the 3rd-oldest underground metro system in the world!
The city also has many bus services; since bus deregulation, almost all are provided by private operators, though SPT part-funds some services. The principal bus operators within the city are First Glasgow, McGill’s Bus Services, Stagecoach West Scotland, and Glasgow Citybus. The main bus terminal in the city is Buchanan bus station.
Glasgow has the most extensive urban rail network in the UK outside London, with rail services traveling to a large part of the West of Scotland. Most lines were electrified under British Rail. All trains running within Scotland, including the local Glasgow trains, are operated by Abellio ScotRail, who owns the franchise as determined by the Scottish Government. Central station and Queen Street station are the two main railway terminals.
Employment Opportunities
Students can attend masterclasses on CVs, applications, and interviews, or by creating a LinkedIn profile. Quick coaching sessions and job-seeking skills workshops can be provided by career managers. Career fairs and online events are also helpful when it comes to job-hunting, which may offer a multitude of graduate, temporary, part-time, and vacation jobs in Glasgow and around the world. Remember to always do your due diligence in researching for potential job employment before sending your applications.
A part-time job can also be an excellent way to help you to develop transferable skills sought by employers. With around 65,000 students in the city, competition for roles can be high so you may want to look outside the immediate West End area and explore other areas, which are within commuting distance.
Allowable hours of work:
· For UK or EU students, there are no restrictions on the number of hours you can work alongside your studies but be sure to strive for a manageable balance with your academic work.
· For non-UK or EU students, you can work for a maximum of 20 hours per week during term time and up to 40 hours per week during vacations (visa allowing).
Sites to look for jobs:
· Indeed
· Gumtree
Accommodation
As Scotland’s largest city and home to five higher education institutions, Glasgow has a lot to offer when it comes to student accommodation, wherever in the City you choose to live. All of the universities enumerated above offer their respective living quarters in and around their central campuses, plus there is also an abundance of high quality, reasonably priced student housing.
By picking private halls of residence, you get the chance to meet with a great variety of students from all the different universities and colleges based in Glasgow. Here students from the University of Glasgow will live side by side with students from the University of Strathclyde, and so forth, giving you an even bigger pool of potential friends to draw from. The popular West End of Glasgow is where plenty of students call home, but the private houses and house shares are usually taken by students already based in Glasgow.