Image showing a piece of steam machinery from the side with a mezzanine platform around it and access steps in the foreground.

Image showing the interior of an Art room in the Institute, with several clay models of parts of the human body in the background, an easel, and a raised platform with a covered plinth (possibly for life models to sit on, or still life subjects to be arranged upon).

Image showing the interior of the Institute boiler house and its coal fired boiler.

Image showing the interior of the Institute boiler house and its coal fired boiler.

Image showing a detail of the Institute boiler with possible power generating elements below it.

Image showing the Institute Boiler House straight ahead, and the Textiles Department building to the left.

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

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

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.