Features interview with Principal Bernard King, highlight on Mechanical Engineering and the Continuous Passive Motion Machine for hand injury therapy, student quiz and weekly News Roundup.

0.00 Start
1.30 Interview with Principal Bernard King giving an overview of the background and work of DIT
5.00 Mechanical Engineering project on the Continuous Passive Motion Machine for hand therapy. Interview with patient Duncan McKenzie, and machine creator, David Caeras (?)
8.40 Interview with Prof John Milne on Research & Development projects at the Mechanical Engineering Department, and the prospects for graduates
11.30 Quiz – Computing Science Students Stewart King, David Graham, Graeme Melville, and Denise Cooper. Questions on their specialist subject and general knowledge.
17.20 News Round-up with Brian Lindsay. Focus on Freshers Fortnight at the Marketgait Students Union – events include Scottish country dancing, 60s &70s Disco, Bouncy Boxing Night, River Detectives gig, and “Blastaway” Night.
19.30 - End

Highlight on Department of Business Studies, inc Behavioural Studies research on polling and marketing techniques in pain measurement, Business School course in retail management, and research on “cut price shopping”. Also news of student “Reclaim the Night” march and vigil for the Women’s Safety campaign for Zero Tolerance for violence against women.
0.00 Start
0.45 Jimmy Black interviews Behavioural Psychologist Mike Swanston in the Dept of Business Studies about pain, and the use of animated pictures in multiple choice questionnaires to help measure pain. Also being developed for opinion polls and marketing.
06.25 Jimmy Black interviews John Fearney at the Dundee Business School in Dudhope Castle about the new course being developed in Retail Studies, and research on trends in “cut-price shopping”.
09.45 Jimmy Black speaks to Stewart Howe about courses and career opportunities for graduates from the Department of Business Studies.
11.50 Quiz: Dept of Mathematics and Computer Sciences – Gary Reynolds, Neil McEwan, Roy Middleton, Alan Clark. Questions on their specialist subject and general knowledge.
17.10 Brian Lindsay – News Roundup, intimation of “Reclaim the Night” march and vigil for Women’s Safety Campaign tying in with the new Zero Tolerance poster campaign raising awareness of women’s safety and men’s awareness of women’s fears. Upcoming inaugural meeting of the Anti-Racism society with a cheese and wine night at the Marketgait building. Notes the society is meeting against a backdrop of increased racial intolerance and British National Party activity across the country. Upcoming Halloween party in the Marketgait with associated party games. Mixed Hockey Team and Rugby Team are in training preparing for their first games in the Inter University League (to which the Hockey Team has just been admitted). DIT Football Team won their last match 3-1 against Birkhead on Saturday. Scorers were Terry Thomas, Willy Patrick, and Scott Symon. They now have 5 points from 5 games.
19.37 End

Alexander (Sandy) Robertson shared his memories of studying Mechanical and Production Engineering at Dundee Technical College, including his accommodation in "digs", and using early computers. He shares anecdotes about lectures and various lecturers during his time there.

0.00 Interview started
0.20 Studied Mechanical and Production Engineering – father owned a garage in Nairn
1.10 Showed us his certificate
1.25 Donald Macgregor, his friend from Nairn, did civil engineering
1.50 Things going on at the time - Vietnam War. NCR (National Cash Registers) laying off staff in Dundee
2.30 Talked about new technology that he used – showed a slide rule that he used as a calculator.
3.40 “Everything was new technology to me”
4.20 Funny memories – filling out form for new course, someone wrote “occupation - Poet Laureate”, so he was challenged to recite a poem to everyone else.
5.30 There were hundreds of engineers but they all had to do a common course in Chemistry. Chemists don’t normally do complicated formulae (unlike physicists and engineers), but one day when Dr Hargreaves did, the engineering students all cheered. Dr Hargreaves turned around and said “Don’t cheer! Just throw cigarettes!”
6.40 Tutorials – one student trying to impress his tutor, trying fancy equations to solve a problem – nothing worked. An old tutor in “Plus fours” (trousers tucking into socks) suggested using Ohms Law – “you’ve tried everything else, even though it won’t work you might as well try it.”
8.00 Meeting a support tutor, who asks the students how they’re doing. One student had no problems, but the support Tutor kept asking, “Are you sure?”. Eventually, in desperation – “Maybe you could listen to some of my problems.”.
8.50 1966 college computer. I remember a lab on programming the digital computer. Paper tape of an inch wide, punched with a programme. Basic stuff. Another computer we used more and earlier – an analogue computer. More of a continuous computer, plugging in wires to create circuits (like an old telephone exchange).
11.20 At Aston in Birmingham, he used a computer with punch cards. In early days in Dundee, the computer was huge – filled a whole room.
12.20 AR asked Stuart and Aaron if they used computers much. They used computers a lot – for technology, and English for example.
13.30 Societies – “I had friends that played rugby. I don’t remember being in any societies. We had parties, get togethers, played golf. Societies were not something we had in the 60s.”
14.40 Accommodation – we had to find our own accommodation. Stayed in a Church of Scotland Hostel on Hilltown. Had a cubicle. Amongst other people – bakers, plumbers etc. The baker made the porridge early in the morning – hard once they got to it. Then he stayed in an apartment (flat) with his friend Donald MacGregor, then he was in digs (shared rented accommodation) with a schoolteacher at Kirktown Secondary School, Miss Wallace – Kirktown won Top of the Form in 1967 – she coached that team. Knowledgeable person that helped him get through his final year at the College
17.20 Not been back in Dundee since 1970. He thinks the accommodation has changed. Courses have changed. Very different now.

Sumant Mathure speaks about his time as a research student in Mechanical Engineering at Dundee College of Technology, his journey from India to Dundee in January 1987, the work he did on continuous casting with precious metals, and meeting Prince Philip during the College’s centenary celebrations in 1988.

[0.00] Interview Preliminaries
[03:22] Interview starts
[04:20] Name & connection to University - Jan 1987-May 1991 at DIT
[04:44] Research into continuous casting with gold, silver copper; Working with Birmingham Mint & Rautomead; Student project working on unique relationship with manufacture & institution
[06:00] Already had a Bsc in chemistry (?) from India; Dr Robert W Johnson was his supervisor
[07:00] Degree in metallurgy (mentioned in Herald newspaper)
[08:00] Dr R W Johnson presented a paper on continuous casting in Mumbai at the Hotel Taj. This attracted him to studying in Dundee.
[10:00] Lots of profound memories from his “golden years”. Born in 1966 and arrived in Dundee 5th Jan 1987, only 20 years old, no internet, only letters and telephone to communicate. His Dad was in Dubai when he and his mother received the letter of acceptance from R W Johnson to attend at DIT. Courses started on 7th Jan
[11:53] First time travelling alone internationally. Arrived to the worst winter in the UK
[12:45] Not happy with the snow, weather or food.
[13:53] Met friends, started to feel Scottish
[14:50] Food – first 3 months were in halls of residence. He had to prove he was able to do his studies and so was often working on projects into the later hours. Meaning he’d miss his high tea at the halls and would be given cold salad to eat!
[15:50] Difficult to understand the Scottish accent
[16:15] Student council international food fest. Sumant insisted on 4 tables to represent India
[18:50] Had international housemates, from China, Egypt and Zambia.
[19:20] Duke of Edinburgh visit in 1989 to look at the gold project
[22:00] Gold project. Only a few people were able to enter the mechanical engineering room where the gold project was taking place. Needed a pass to get in. Felt very proud that he was one of the students who had access
[23:30] Sumant ran the demo for Duke of Edinburgh. Metal heated to 1100 degrees C – needed to be very careful and was his responsibility to make sure the demo ran smoothly!
[24:20] Duke of Edinburgh comments on India and how pleased he was with the presence of international students
[25:10] Felt honored as a student to be there
[26:36] Becoming a university in 1992-1994. Had to scrap the mechanical engineering degree.
[28:50] He also did consultancies under R W Johnson and 2 scholarships
[29:20] Joined his father in India after graduating in 1991. 1994 – got married. 1995 – made director of his Dad's company.
[31:00] Over 400 clients, very popular and well-reputed company in India.
[31:40] Still maintained contact with R W Johnson and others.
[31:46] Interview Recording ends

David Ross talks about his time in senior management and about being the Dean of the Faculty of Science and the things that he taught (chemistry). He speaks about students and lecturers that he remembers, the courses, how things have changed since he was at the University, and the role that he played in the Dundee Institute of Technology gaining its University status in 1994.
He speaks about celebrations that took place when the university gained its status. and the reasons that the Dundee Institute of Technology wanted to gain university status.

[00:37] Responsibilities as Head of the department
[2:10] Students who stood out
[2:31] Other staff members
[4:00] Developments around 1990’s – course expansion, building expansion, equipment in labs
[5:50] Differences in campus
[7:20] University gaining status (keeping courses successful while getting more students)
[8:23] + title for the university
[9:06] Claverhouse as a potential name
[9:36] Abertay name explained
[10:00] Competing with Dundee University
[12:21] New students from different areas (Ireland, India, China)
[12:47] +advertising for students
[14:30] Why the DIT wanted to get university status (prestige etc)
[16:00] New courses to be brought in and the development plans
[18:00] Courses that still exist and unsuccessful ones (Chemistry and management) due to changing perceptions etc
[20:42] Courses with big numbers of students vs smaller courses
[21:15] Lab developments easier through university status
[22:28] Staff parties and celebrations for getting university status + law hill and banner
[23:12] Staff close together and having parties
[25:10] Staff experience story – getting high profile biologists
[26:30] Getting more staff to match student number
[27:20] International staff (England, India , Belgium)
[28:35] Learning to split time between teaching and researching
[31:39] Recording Ends

William Moheiddeen speaks about his journey into university; his reasons for standing for Student Association President; the successful campaigns against the proposed merger of the higher educational institutions in Dundee; the benefits of university education to him in that campaign and his future career. His opinion on the benefits of university education and the need for widening access.

0.00 Interview starts
0.13 At first wanted to be a civil engineer (family expectations) but he enjoyed doing PE and ended up studying coaching and development
2.16 Getting experience at his old school, making students enjoy PE; got the opportunity to enrol at Abertay and started University in 2006
2.48 Why he became the president of the students association, to make the University better, to have an impact, provide better student experience; the story about the union building and the nice football atmosphere and how to improve it
4.51 Set up the society, joined the union and found out what the SA did
6.28 Possibility of providing more services for what students wanted, after getting a degree giving something back to the University and the students
6.40 Nice experiences of meeting people from all around the world and wanted to do something for them
7.07 Why he protested the merger, it was a collective reaction of executives and others to the idea of a forceful merger
8.58 Why Abertay was so important, distinct university with certain resources (its size, the community, the relationships between staff etc.)
10.37 Abertay as great at accommodating students from working class backgrounds and the need to celebrate and defend the university’s qualities
11.40 Keeping in touch with people he meet through Abertay (friends, work colleagues), social media very helpful as he moved all over Scotland
13.29 He was the captain of the Gaelic football club, very important experience
13.42 Lecturers who stood out for him, especially his dissertation supervisor (Andrea Cameron), emphatic, supportive and understanding
15.29 Skills developed in university not just as part of the degree, lecturers played an important role in his development as a person
16.13 How being the president of the SA helped him after university, still working with SAs, supporting others to change the society and the environment (students have a voice, make degree and the experience as a student better, get the needed support)
18.23 Why he began his speech in Gaelic, emphasize Abertay as a place for Gaelic speakers (not “othered” by other Scottish people) and for internationals to show the role of Gaelic (not just one way of being Scottish)
20.41 Abertay as helping him decide what he wants to do in life, story about his job as a butcher, wanting to be a bricklayer
22.58 Lecture about British political system in his first year, learning about politics as their future jobs will be funded by the government
24.58 Efforts put into defending the Abertay from merging (posters, good relationship with journalists, petitions); their petition getting international signatures (Australia, Indonesia) + story about the prime minister saying there won’t be a forced merger for Abertay, then moving towards building support for the university (new campaign)
29.40 March and rally with banner through Dundee, invited students and politicians

Alastair Scott speaks about his experience as a student at the Dundee Technical College, how classes used to be, about the courses he took and what Dundee and the campus used to look like. He spoke about his role in the family business and how the jute industry provided him with a lot of travelling opportunities (India, Pakistan, Thailand).
He talks about lecturers he remembers and the connections he still has with Abertay University and his role in the Dundee Heritage Trust. He then talked about all the different companies he worked for and other involvements he had (board member in America, part of a counsel).
Alastair speaks about his experience with synthetic fibres (e.g. polypropylene), and his involvement with the university for the creation of the jute museum at Verdant Works.

1:00 Jute technology course at the Dundee Technical College
3:00 Describes courses he took (textiles, management)
4:00 Practical and theoretical work, jute as an important part of education in Dundee
5:00 His role in the Dundee Heritage Trust (which owns a lot of the College's training machinery now)
6:00 College Lecturers that he remembers and people he stayed in contact with
8:00 Connections from now with Abertay (scholarship)
10:00 His time in the jute industry (travelling opportunities)
11:00 Use of jute replaced by plastics
12:00 His company producing artificial grass, and a story about how it led to him sharing a sports field with Whitney Houston
14:00 Other career opportunities it has provided to him (member of an American textiles board, member of a council)
15:00 Social life, social areas at the College
18:00 Differences in the Campus and university back then and now

• the use of jute
  20:00 Archway story
  21:00
  23:00 Producing polypropylene + how it took companies a while to get used to it, with
  24:00 The Tech's involvement in research was limited - jute companies were secretive about their processes and in competition with each other
  27:00 College machinery for the jute production and his involvement in setting up the Verdant Works jute museum
  29:00 The Jute industry’s legacy

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.

The videos were created using mobile phone technology and simple crafting techniques. They focus on small anecdotes told by the interview subjects that lend themselves to visual representation.

The videos and reference numbers are as follows:

AY25-MR-2-1 Craigie High School - William Moheiddeen
AY25-MR-2-2 Craigie High School - Nick Hamilton
AY25-MR-2-3 Craigie High School - Ahmar Ghafoor
AY25-MR-2-4 Dundee Young Carers - Louise Giblin
AY25-MR-2-5 Larisa Olaru-Peter - Jenny McNeill
AY25-MR-2-6 Hope Busák - Sumant Mathure