Graham Milne shared memories of taking the College Rugby team to an international universities rugby tournament in Bilbao, Spain. He talks about the journey there by bus, feeling lost once they got there, beating the English team in the first round, and the feeling of coming third in the tournament. He also talks about how things have changed at the university since his time there, and the importance of taking advantage of the social aspects of university as well as the educational benefits.

0.00 Start of the interview
0.20 Didn’t initially want to do Civil Engineering. Wanted to do Architecture at Dundee University. Dad owned GMB. Failed first year of his degree and did a Higher National Diploma in Civil Engineering instead
1.10 Great honour to be picked by peers to be captain of the rugby team. Great responsibility too – need good attitude, discipline. Wouldn’t see himself as the best player, but had other skills – leadership for example.
4.20 He received a letter from Spain looking for teams to promote rugby in the Basque area of Spain through a tournament. The application he put forward was a little embellished. But to his surprise the team was selected. Initial doubts - didn’t know how they would get there – didn’t think they could do the country credit. Had to try to get funding to travel, but accommodation, food etc would be supplied by Bilbao University. Managed to get the funding but it was a very hard task – some of it came from the College, but most of it was raised externally. They took the Bus to England, cross English Channel, then to Spain via Stagecoach. Train to Arun [???] station. Left there on their own in the middle of nowhere not sure if there would be another train to get where they needed to go. Managed to then catch a train to Bilbao, but they had no-one able to speak Spanish and there was no-one to meet them there in Bilbao. They were afraid of armed police walking around the town due to threat of terrorism (Basque separatists). They felt lost, he “nearly had a mutiny” from the team (i.e. people threatening to go home and not take part). But someone managed to phone University of Bilbao and a bus was arranged to their accommodation.
9.20 First game against England (Salford Uni), and Scotland won. Their opponents had a more professional set up (coach, medics, better equipment etc), but were over-confident, and had gone out the night before, so they were not in good shape for the match. Dundee “took them apart”.
11.20 He feels his team had great camaraderie, team spirit. Great feeling to win Bronze medal. Only sadness is that some players that he had promised would get a game, decided after that first match that they were not good enough and opted out of playing, choosing instead to cheer from the sidelines. He regrets they didn’t get the experience of playing in the tournament.
13.20 He didn’t stay in college accommodation, but stayed at home in Dundee, and had the benefits of that. He managed to see the College’s accommodation, and, compared with what his children have experienced at university, thinks there is a big improvement in what is provided now.
15.10 College / Uni is all new for students, and next steps are work, then rising in your profession, for example, taking part in professional organisations (like the Chartered Institute of Civil Engineers). Planning is important – plan to get where you want to go, encourage others to join your profession. He is a STEM Ambassador (Bridges to Schools) – and has shown school pupils how to build suspension bridges, and conduct disaster recovery exercises. Make sure you contribute to your profession.
19.05 He remembers the whole experience was one of enjoyment. Take advantage of the social aspect as well as the educational one, so join a society or a club that will introduce you to your circle of friends for the next few years. This also applies when you get into the world of work or moving to a new area – it’s all new, and joining a club helps you get into that new environment.

Rebecca Wade, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science at Abertay, speaks about her career and achievements at Abertay University in Environmental Science. She also talks about her work as a STEM Ambassador, and her experiences so far on the Homeward Bound leadership initiative.

Louise Giblin speaks about her experiences as a Biotechnology student at Dundee Institute of Technology, experiences in student societies and activism, including her first parachute jump, and the transition to university status. She also spoke about her subsequent career working for the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency.

Richard Irvine speaks about his course and career at Dundee Institute of Technology. He spoke about his work as a research student and subsequent member of staff working on developing environmentally sustainable compost, and then acting as an intermediary between industry and the university when he worked for the Abertay Centre for the Environment. After the centre closed he was made redundant and he subsequently worked as a teacher / lecturer periodically for the University.
He speaks about his experience waiting on the Queen when she opened the new library building in 1998, which included speaking to her and helping her when the proceedings got a bit confused.
He talks about his feelings about the change of attitude amongst some staff concerning the change to university status.

0.00 Interview started
0.50 Use of Doctors terms previously, but titles are not used now.
2.15 Got to end of school – wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. Flowed into Dundee Institute of Technology. No specific reason to come here.
3.15 HND BioSciences course 1989 – Biotechnology started then. Got HND and got the Young Prize then went into 3rd year of the degree programme. Graduated 1993.
4.30 “Best time of my life” – really good group. All worked really well.
5.10 Studied at Nottingham Trent but didn’t work out. Came back. Friend researching here. Kevin Gartland was working on plant Biotech – stopping Dutch Elm disease. At same time working on waste products – Richard worked on sewage sludge. It can produce compost.
7.20 The University got European Regional Development Fund grant for sustainable environment research institute. It also got its labs refurbished for this. Richard was a Biowaste scientist. He acted as a conduit between the university and general public on environmental issues. It went on for 4 years. Kevin then went to Glasgow Caledonian University, and Richard was made redundant.
9.20 He’s been teaching on and off over the years.
10.20 He remembers great work with a company in Fife during the sustainable environment work – Andrew Cook in Methil / Glenrothes. He helped with composting. The work went on after the end of the project. He travelled round country into factories / yards / caravan sites in remote locations. Not really worrying about the funding, unusually.
13.10 Opening of the Library – 1998. The University was doing lots of fancy dinners for VIP visitors and hon grads and also graduation lunches. Not enough staff. Doris Kinnison? Asked research students if they wanted some extra money to help in these. Royal opening came – Research Student catering staff were first in line for being involved. We just turned up as normal – carparks were cleared. Every draincover was open, looking for explosives. "We winged it!" The Queen arrived, she came in the main door, up to the Principals office, small drinks reception, "we had to wheel along all the alcohol the uni could muster". The Queen was briefed on what would happen, then she went to the library, cut the ribbon, had a tour, she then went back across to the Kydd Building and she had the lunch in the old journal area of the old library which was turned into a reception and dining area. Richard served the Queen and Prince Philip with their Dubonnay and lemonade using the white gloves – the ladies were terrified of dropping it. Everyone filtered away apart from the Queen and Prince Philip. She asked Richard what to do next – he told her to go through the double door. Prince Philip was “playing with the sockets”. She was joking away. Dinner was from students of Dundee and Angus College? Then they lined up and the Queen walked past to leave.
24.20 He has his student and staff cards from his time at the university. Enamel badge for the nursing course that he rescued (does it have a number on it?!). He has a 1950 prospectus. He has a lot of books from when the library was moving. He has material on jute too.
27.40 He talks about the display of jute shuttles in the main building that has disappeared.
28.40 After university status, he feels nothing really changed in the buildings. He thinks there were changes in how the staff perceived the institution – wanted to be more university-like. He thinks there was more university stuff, but less of what it had been doing. DIT had a good record and image of what it was doing – it was just a name change, he feels it shouldn’t have made any difference. On Wednesday afternoons there were never any scheduled classes so you could do clubs, but that faded out in the 1990s.
32.30 He says he is a bit of a collector, hence why he has some good material saved from being thrown out.
35.50 He feels the HND in Biosciences was a really good course. Very positive way of getting into the degree. Strong vocational course. Well put together. Very talented individuals, lecturers, and technicians. They were not into research, but dedicated to teaching. Sometimes their talent was overlooked, and not always respected.

Christina Howie speaks about her experience on the Nursing course at Dundee College of Technology, the close friendships she developed with fellow students, the social life (including the rugby match with the engineers), her subsequent career as a nurse, how things have changed, including improved attitudes towards nurses in light of Covid.

0.00 Interview starts
0.10 Why she wanted to be a nurse – came from a medical family (could train in local hospital or get a degree)
1.10 Why they had a computer course on the degree (story about the computer room)
1.50 She picked Dundee because it was the closest to home
3.05 Course was new and intense; theory from September to May and practical work in the summer (paid)
3.50 Story about the year she didn’t want to be a nurse anymore (skin test an vaccine) (potential scene for stop motion animation)
5.00 Lecturers as former nurses vs lecturers with teaching experience
6.20 Her most treasured memory – the friendships (the first 2 girls she met and stayed with are still her friends)
7.35 Abertay building a mix of old and new, doesn’t miss the building but the nice memories created
8.57 The building was new and modern for its time vs the old hospital she could have practiced at
10.52 After finishing the degree she got a job as a nurse straight away, worked at most of Dundee’s hospitals
11.50 Horrible things nurses are exposed to; each nurse has her own thing (sputum)
12.32 Civil engineering and the nursing having fancy parties together
13.17 Having rugby matches with the rugby team and going to their games
13.10 Society of nurses and charities the science department was involved in
14.05 Career choices then were banking, teaching or nursing; there are more choices now but she probably would have still chosen nursing (medical family)
16.16 Nurses always required, especially now with COVID, some robots used – telling patients to sit down
18.02 Shows pictures (with uniforms and class), badge

13 videos and text summaries of reminiscence interviews conducted with former staff and alumni of Abertay University by Abertay 25 Young Ambassadors, and current staff and students of Abertay University. Interviewees were as follows:

1. Sumant Mathure
2. David Ross
3. Richard Irvine
4. Alastair Scott
5. Nick Hamilton
6. Alexander (Sandy) Robertson
7. Graham Milne
8. Christina Howie
9. Ahmar Ghafoor
10. William Mohieddeen
11. Rebecca Wade
12. Jenny McNeill
13. Louise Giblin

6 stop-motion animation videos were created from the interviews and these are as follows:

1. Craigie High School - William Moheiddeen
2. Craigie High School - Nick Hamilton
3. Craigie High School - Ahmar Ghafoor
4. Dundee Young Carers - Louise Giblin
5. Larisa Olaru-Peter - Jenny McNeill
6. Hope Busák - Sumant Mathure