Glasgow Caledonian University: Inspiring students in STEM

18 Oct 2016

As a global institution that fosters a unique knowledge economy and a keen creative culture, Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) is a vibrant, innovative and award-winning university that represents the beating heart of Scotland’s largest city.

The GCU Experience

Home to a diverse and multi-cultural population of more than 20,000 students, GCU exemplifies a Scottish home-away-from-home for talented students around the world. A warm, international community and a cutting-edge city-centre campus makes the GCU student experience one you’d be hard pushed to match anywhere else on the globe.

But on top of providing a homely environment where students can live and study, GCU is also well-known for providing world-class academics.

“We have become an international centre of excellence in higher education, promoting employability and global citizenship in our graduates,” says GCU’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Pamela Gillies. “We win awards for our support and commitment to the student experience, whilst delivering innovation through our world-class research in key areas of strength.”

With its long-held tradition of widening access to first-rate higher education regardless of ethnicity, gender or background, GCU has managed to influence its social and intellectual capital for the benefit of communities at the national and international level – and this forms only part of what makes the GCU experience so special.

Exceptional Rates of Graduate Employability

As an institution that holds the principle of employability in increasingly high regard, GCU graduates benefit from a reputation that sees global employers recruit them with not only confidence, but with also gratitude.

Through the provision of a broad range of career-centred courses, most of which incorporate invaluable work placement opportunities, students are able to develop industry’s sought-after soft skills. These real-world, respected and transferrable expertise – including things like critical thinking, problem-solving and effective communication – are what make the qualified GCU graduate so attractive to prospective employers.

In fact, graduates from Scotland’s 19 higher education institutions, including GCU, have the best record of professional-level jobs in the entire UK sector. The proportion of those in graduate level jobs was four per cent higher than their peers in the rest of the UK at 73 percent, compared to the UK average of 68 percent.

Experts in High-Tech Digital Careers

Fully-equipped with a virtual hospital, high-tech broadcasting suite, fashion factory and an online, Second Life campus, GCU is an expert in placing students in the relevant digital career. By guiding you to the right work placement and academic programme, the university helps students gain the high-tech, professional skills and knowledge that contemporary employers want.

An Advocate of Creative Technology

Through a unique combination of text, graphic art, digital stills, sound, animation and video, new-fangled multimedia can be used to solve virtually any issue with communication. Being a highly-specialised and technically-rich institution, GCU promotes a relevant and engaging education that utilises technology’s latest and greatest.

A Centre of Excellence in STEM

With a wealth of leading faculty with years of experience in their fields, and state-of-the-art facilities that allow all students to excel, GCU has become a reputed pioneer in STEM-related (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education – Software Engineering is one example where the institution truly shines.

“Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, evolution, operation, and maintenance of software” GCU explains. “The principles and practices of software engineering are essential to the development of systems ranging from small mobile device apps through to complex Web, enterprise and global scale systems.”

In the digital age, Software Engineering is a discipline society has and will become increasingly dependent on, and GCU’s provision of courses like the BSc (Hons) in IT Management for Business; the BSc Software Development for Business, BSc Computing; the BSc (Hons) Computer Games (Software Development); the MSc IT, MSc Big Data Technologies and MSc Cloud Computing, and beyond; GCU boasts all the necessary tools to shoot students to the top of this competitive field.

Other STEM-related areas in which the quality of GCU academics are renowned include: Audio Technology, Gaming Technology and 3D Animation .

Paving the way for Gender Equality in STEM-related fields

As a core pillar of GCU’s impactful work, the university seeks to actively promote gender equality within STEM disciplines.

In the UK, women make up just 8.2 percent of working professionals in the engineering field, despite consistently outperforming their male counterparts in this and other science-centred subjects. But last year, GCU played host to the inaugural SmartSTEMs event, and continues to participate in projects similar to this in the hopes of inspiring young women to take on more STEM degrees.

“For Scotland to succeed on a global scale, we must ensure we have the most diverse pool of talent tackling problems,” said Stuart MacDonald, Managing Director of Seric Systems – one of SmartSTEMs most influential partners. “SmartSTEMs exists to ensure the widest possible STEM pipeline is generated among our young people,” and the passionate participation and encouragement of university’s like GCU is exactly what young women need to pursue their STEM employment dreams.

So with its outstanding rates of graduate employability, innovative use of state-of-the-art technologies, promotion of equality in all realms of education and, not to forget, its world-class degrees; Glasgow Caledonian University continues to inspire current, future and past STEM students on a global scale.

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