The 600th Anniversary Campaign

A celebration of how the University of St Andrews reached its £100 million fundraising target and what this has achieved.

The University’s 600th Anniversary Campaign was set within the context of an ancient philanthropic tradition. The Campaign began quietly in 2008 and was launched publicly in 2011 by HRH The Duke of Cambridge to augment the University's relatively small endowment and to raise funds for ambitious projects that will consolidate its status as a world-class centre for teaching, learning and research.

Thanks to the generosity of its supporters, the University of St Andrews has met its £100 million target, almost doubled its endowment and built a legacy from which its current and future students, staff and members of the community will benefit.

Over 15,500 alumni, students, staff and supporters helped to achieve this goal.

Students in gowns walking through the quad

Professor Sally Mapstone and other members of the St Andrews community explain how the 600th Anniversary Campaign has benefited the University, describe key plans for the future and say thank you to everyone who has contributed.

Video transcript

We are so thankful to everybody who has helped with the 600th anniversary campaign. Your contributions are changing student lives, are enhancing the fabric of the university, and are enabling us to plan confidently for our future.

Right from the start of the 600th anniversary campaign, we wanted to make scholarships a very important part of the campaign; right at the heart of it.

Because students, are after all, so important to us at St Andrews.

As is widening access for students who come from modest backgrounds.

So right from the very beginning we were looking for donations to scholarships, and one of the wonderful things is that that strand of the campaign really developed and gathered momentum as it went on so that now we have a very wide variety of people contributing to it. and, correspondingly, a wide variety of students taking up the scholarships.

As a result of your engagement, St Andrews is welcoming more students from more diverse backgrounds than ever before.

Our researchers and lecturers are working with state of the art equipment and facilities, in ways that place us at the cutting edge of discovery.

We're developing the next generation of microscopes and tools that will allow scientists to look at diseases that affect the mind such as dementia, Parkinson's, Huntington's without damaging the tissue in any way in a beautiful gentle way with no contact whatsoever.

With appropriate resource and careful planning, St Andrews can really make a continued strong impact in this century in that area.

The iconic St Salvator's Quadrangle has been refurbished, providing a stunning location for University events.

The construction of a new Scottish Oceans Institute at the East Sands is well underway.

The Scottish Oceans Institute started in 1896.

You can imagine how the requirements in modern science change over more than a hundred year period and so it was very timely to renew the facilities that we have.

The new building will have two main parts.

One is a new aquarium.

This is an aquarium that will be state of the art.

The other part is more office space.

We are working with so many different marine scientists that currently they are distributed across town and bringing everyone into one building is going be very important for us.

And then, last but not least, for teaching as well we are building new teaching spaces and these teaching spaces integrate very well with the researchers and with the lab and also with the aquarium.

We've transformed the former Martyr's Kirk into a postgraduate research library and reading room.

The Richardson Research Library at Martyr's Kirk has been one of the most significant developments in the library's history and in the University's history for decades.

It has transformed the way in which research is done at St Andrews' library and it's transformed the offer to our postgraduates and researchers both on staff and to visitors as well so it's a really great asset and it's enabled a feeling of a genuine research hub right in the heart of St Andrews.

We've redeveloped the Students' Association building.

We have completely refurbished Students' Association building which has changed dramatically from what many of our alumni will remember, but in a way that is, we hope, really positive.

Students are really proud of the building.

They enjoy it.

It is a building that serves our students, but, which also, attracts many people from our community.

And that sense that our students are part of the wider St Andrews community is really enhanced by the new Students' Association building.

We've also enhanced our students' lives through the big refurbishment and changes that we've been able to make in the new sports centre.

The feedback from our students and clubs, local schools, local clubs, local community, has been phenomenal.

People are incredibly happy with what we've done.

We now have three full-size sports halls.

We have a brand new dance studio.

We have a top of the range gym.

A top of the range performance suite.

As well as, four indoor tennis courts.

As a representative of St Andrews when you put your kit on you feel like you're representing the Uni, so, now being able to take a team in that you're competing against into these brand new facilities it really gives you a sense of pride for what you're representing.

We know that we will also be able to enhance our community's lives and their sense of pleasure in St Andrews by our new Laidlaw Music Centre which is being so generously supported by members and supporters of the University.

Music has been booming at the University over the last ten years.

We've had more and more students playing, singing, more and more groups starting up and the Younger Hall is bursting at the seams.

It's a good concert hall, but the other rooms in it weren't designed for music practice or rehearsal and they are not sound-proofed.

So we decided that we needed a new building in which all of the activities that are now taking place could flourish and could happen alongside each other.

The new building will have rooms that are suitable for all of the types of music that we do, and indeed, want to do in the future.

The building was sited at the heart of the town. so that it's a building that the community feels genuinely belongs to them.

So many of the projects that have been enhanced by the campaign and enabled by the campaign, contribute vastly to what our students experience at St Andrews and what our academic and professional services staff also experience and enjoy, but they also greatly enhance the character and quality of the town itself.

One of the most important functions of a University museum is in many ways its community outreach, its engagement work with the local community, but also with schools.

So we have an award winning schools programme, we have wonderful schemes, like the MUSA Young Artist of the Year award.

But what this extension will enable more topical and better engagement with some of the big exhibition themes that we have and allow us to tailor more carefully what we're offering to our local community in Fife and beyond.

I would like to say thank you to those donors who've enabled the extension to MUSA to go ahead.

It's an absolutely fantastic asset which allows us to use the space as a platform for much wider conversations across the University.

We hope that it inspires generations of students to think about collections and to think about objects and art as a way of understanding the past, and the present, and the future in more ambitious and creative ways.

Your support is integral to the Campaign's lasting effect on our people, their ambitions, and the common good.

To go on being successful, we cannot stand still.

Our plans for the future include a new college at the recently acquired Madras site on South Street for teaching and research in the social sciences; the development of a new STEM hub on the North Haugh for Mathematics and Statistics, Biology, and Computer Science; and the refurbishment of the Younger Hall, so that we can celebrate the high points of the academic year together.

Please continue to be part of our quest.

The launch

HRH Prince William of Wales officially launched the 600th Anniversary Campaign on Friday 25 February 2011 in St Andrews.

"Despite being one of Europe’s leading research institutions, the third oldest university in the English-speaking world and, of course, far and away the best university in the world, St Andrews still has that uncanny knack of feeling like home. And so it must have done to generations of undergraduates before us – in fact, 600 years’ worth.

To mark this momentous Anniversary, the Appeal we are launching today aims to raise £100 million to invest in people and ideas, ensuring that the brightest students come to St Andrews, regardless of background and circumstance… and once they are here they are taught by the best teachers. So Happy Birthday St Andrews. Here’s to you, and here’s to the next 600 years."

HRH Prince William of Wales
MA 2005

Louise Richardson, Prince William, Kate Middleton, Lord Campbell

Events of the Campaign

The launch of the Chancellor's Circle (2011)

The Chancellor's Circle was founded to recognise and thank those generous alumni and friends who have chosen to remember St Andrews in their will and are helping to create an enduring foundation for the success of future students.

In recent years, legacy bequests have supported the redevelopment of the Sports Centre and Students’ Association building and the construction of the Medical and Biological Sciences building on the North Haugh. Bequests have also played a central role in our plans for the Laidlaw Music Centre, while a significant number of people have requested that their legacy is used to establish undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships.

The Chancellor The Rt Hon Lord Campbell of Pittenweem CH CBE PC QC — The Chancellor - The Rt Hon Lord Campbell of Pittenweem CH CBE PC QC

Premiere of Ever to Excel (2012)

On Wednesday 16 May 2012, many of the University's alumni, friends and supporters gathered at the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) in New York for the US premiere of Ever to Excel – the first-ever film made about the foundation and development of Scotland’s first university. The film was directed by award-winning filmmaker Murray Grigor OBE and featured the incomparable Sir Sean Connery, Hon DLitt, 1988. Initially agreeing to be the unseen narrator for the film, Sir Sean Connery was persuaded to step in front of the lens once again following his retirement from acting.

"When Louise Richardson invited me to collaborate on a film to mark our 600 years, as a key part of the scholarship endowment campaign, I readily agreed."

Sir Sean Connery
Hon DLitt, 1988

Following other successful premieres in St Andrews, Los Angeles, Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, Ever to Excel was made available to alumni and friends around the globe to take part in a worldwide film weekend in October 2013. Screenings took place in 25 countries.

Celebrating 600 years of the University of St Andrews with stories charting its progress over hundreds of years, and a look at how this university, which was founded on the east coast of Scotland, became the 'fountain of all the arts and sciences'.

Video transcript

[MUSIC]

>> St Andrews is a moody, broody, beautiful, haunting place of great scholarship, of great minds, and just an astonishing place.

[MUSIC]

>> What I really remember about St Andrews is just the sheer beauty of the place. Aesthetically there is really nowhere like it and I think that's why photographers have been drawn there for years.

>> St Andrews is such an ancient and well-worn place that it has persisted in my memory from the time I first went there as a very young student at a very ancient University. A kind of wise mist enveloped the place and it seemed that we couldn't help but absorbing it unwittingly.

>> LOUISE RICHARDSON: But how did our University come to be founded out here on the east coast of Scotland? How did it come to be called St Andrews?

>> SIR SEAN CONNERY: Well, as legend has it, an angel appears to Saint Rule on the Greek isle of Patras and says "take the relics of the blessed Andrew." "Take them across the seas to the far north west until you reach the end of the world."

[WAVES CRASH]

Saint Rule, bearing the sacred relics of St Andrew is welcomed by Angus, King of the Picts at Kilrymont, his royal retreat deep in the woods of Fife.

[WATER FLOWING]

[MUSIC]

[CHORAL MUSIC]

Kilrymont, the king's seat, shall be born again and christened as St Andrews.

[CHROAL MUSIC]

Since the wars of independence with England in the 14th century, Scottish students were driven from Oxford and Cambridge to the University of Paris. But, even there, life for the students and the masters began to get difficult too. So much so, that the masters led by Bishop Wardlaw began to consider founding their own University back home in Scotland.

>> But in order for this to become fully official in mediaeval terms it required the blessing of the Pope.

>> CONNERY: In 1394, Pedro de Luna, a Spanish cardinal of noble birth received the papal tiara as Benedict XIII, known affectionately as Papa Luna. So it was in his castle of Peniscola on the Mediterranean that Papa Luna drafted St Andrews' six papal bulls. The crescent moon of Papa Luna, Pope Benedict XIII, joins the golden diamonds of Bishop Henry Wardlaw, along with the royal lion rampant of King James, the blue of St Andrews' cross together with the book of learning, all combine to create the University's coat of arms. Three of the greatest poets of the Scottish renaissance graduated here.

[MUSIC]

>> CONNERY: And there were those who left St Andrews to change the world. James Wilson, who signed both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution became one of the first justices on the Supreme Court. Benjamin Franklin was granted doctor of laws by St Andrews in 1759 in the spirit of the Scottish enlightenment. The honour was inscribed to the ingenious and worthy Benjamin Franklin, not only for the rectitude of his morals and sweetness of his life and conversation, but also for his ingenuous inventions. Especially of electricity, which hitherto was little known.

>> James Gregory worked here at the time when the world was still just emerging from the mediaeval period. People still believed in astrology and alchemy, and Gregory was the first to be recognised as a modern scientist in St Andrews.

>> One of the earliest characters associated with photonics of the science of light at St Andrews was of course James Gregory. He shone light through a bird's feather and observed the phenomenon called interference.

>> The idea that John Allen and I had originally working together was that we would use light emitting diodes as a source for photo-dynamic therapy. A therapy of skin cancers. And of course, John was the inventor of a light emitting diode.

>> We develop devices to allow us to use marine mammals to study the ocean. One of the animals that has been most useful in terms of carrying this equipment to remote parts of the world's oceans is the Southern Elephant Seal. This is a species that covers vast distances. They can swim 7,000km. These animals are known to dive below 2,000m in depth. So we've effectively made the animals our partners in getting valuable data about the oceans. St Andrews now is the only producer of these devices in the world and these devices are now sending vast amounts of oceanographic data for everyone on the planet to use.

[MUSIC]

600th Anniversary Campaign Dinner - London (2012)

The University held a 600th Anniversary Campaign Dinner on 8 November 2012 at Middle Temple Hall, London to raise money for scholarships. The event was attended by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the 600th Anniversary Campaign dinner.

St Andrews joins in Lord Mayor of London's Show (2012)

On Saturday 10 November 2012, a walking party of over 40 undergraduates (including costumed students representing Robert the Bruce, Mary Queen of Scots, Pope Benedict XIII and John Cleese) took part in the Lord Mayor of London’s Show. They were joined by over 6,000 people, 25 marching bands, 300 horses, 18 vintage cars, 21 carriages, an original American stagecoach and a Japanese Taiko drum band.

Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral (2012)

A special Service of Thanksgiving was held in the spectacular surroundings of St Paul’s Cathedral on Thursday 20 December 2012. The event was organised by the University of St Andrews London Alumni Club as a commemoration of six centuries of people and ideas.

The event was organised by James North, James Younger and a committee of dedicated volunteers. It was sponsored by a series of generous corporate sponsors, led by alumnus Stuart Mitchell, founding partner of SW Mitchell Capital.

Thanks to their generosity, all proceeds from the ticket sales were given directly to the 600th Anniversary Campaign and contributed to the creation of a London Scholarship, to enable future deserving students from the city to study at St Andrews.

The special Service of Thanksgiving was organised by the University's London Alumni Club.

The 600th Anniversary golf tournament (2013)

The St Andrews 600 – a friendly competition incorporating rounds of golf on The Duke’s, Kingsbarns Golf Links and the Old Course – took place from 20 to 23 June 2013. The competition coincided with the first ever exhibition of the work of celebrated golf photographer Lawrence Levy.

Golfer looking into a bunker — Nearly 200 of Levy's photographs were on display in the University Library between June and August 2013.

600th Anniversary Academic Celebration (2013)

The University hosted a two-day academic celebration from 13 to 14 September 2013. Honorary graduates included:

Hillary Clinton, former United States Secretary of State
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web
Professor Mary Beard, Britain’s best-known classicist.

As one of the most influential women in the world, Hillary Clinton, as stateswomen, senator, and policymaker never shied away from tackling difficult questions, working to make the world a better place, inspiring others, speaking out for the voiceless and striving ever to excel.

Over the two days, academic leaders participated in an academic summit in response to Hillary Clinton’s challenge: “Today our democracies are under stress. It is more important than ever that we rally behind what started here.”

Academics gathered in the Younger Hall to debate the challenges of issues including globalisation, information technology and the need to move away from the current, ‘corrosive’ audit culture.

Clinton and Richardson at the 600th Anniversary Academic Celebration

St Andrews New York Gala Benefit (2014)

The University literally stopped the traffic in New York with the St Andrews New York Gala Benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 9 December 2014, attended by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. It raised a record-breaking sum for student scholarships, medicine, science and sport.

Renée Fleming performing at the St Andrews New York Gala Benefit in 2014 — Renowned opera singer Renée Fleming performed two songs at the conclusion of dinner.

The launch of the Hong Kong Foundation (2015)

The former Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Louise Richardson launched the University of St Andrews Hong Kong Foundation on 29 October 2015 at the official residence of the British Consul to Macau and Hong Kong.

As a result of the event, a number of founding gifts were received, including those from George and Stella Lee who generously established an endowed Hong Kong Scholarship for an undergraduate student, in addition to their support of postgraduate scholarships in economics and biochemistry.

Professor Sally Mapstone, Principal and Vice-Chancellor goes on tour (2016)

Professor Sally Mapstone took up the office of Principal and Vice-Chancellor in September 2016 and then hit the ground running by undertaking a tour to North America, the Far East and the Middle East to meet alumni and friends prior to her formal installation on 29 November 2016.

This trip gave the new Principal an opportunity to meet with the University’s many friends and supporters, promote the work of the University and build on existing strong alumni networks in these areas.

Professor Sally Mapstone attending an event at the China Club in Hong Kong.

The launch of the German Association (2017)

Professor Sally Mapstone, Principal and Vice-Chancellor launched the University of St Andrews German Association in November 2017, with events in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin.

The Association was founded to raise funds to establish new German scholarships for St Andrews, foster cultural and academic exchanges between St Andrews and Germany and promote networking and careers opportunities for alumni in Germany.

"St Andrews has a long and proud tradition as a very international university. I am delighted that this year we have been able to launch our new German Association to add to our existing Hong Kong Foundation and American Foundation, as part of our undertaking to maintain our strong international ties with our alumni and friends in Germany and Europe."

Professor Sally Mapstone
Principal and Vice-Chancellor

St Andrews celebrates £100 million funding success (2018)

On 26 June 2018, the major fundraising campaign launched by the University to mark its 600th anniversary reached its £100 million total.

"The 600th Anniversary Campaign has been a remarkable team effort on the part of our staff and so many of our alumni and friends.

It not only helped us realise a highly ambitious total, it has brought the St Andrews family across the world closer together than ever before, at a time when universities like St Andrews need the support and energy of their former students more than ever.

It is particularly fitting that we are reaching the finishing line in the same week that we send another 2,000 graduates out in the world, many of whom will have benefited from 600th Campaign initiatives.

We are hugely grateful to our patron The Duke of Cambridge for his unwavering support of this critically important initiative."

Professor Sally Mapstone
Principal and Vice- Chancellor

Projects

The aim of the 600th Anniversary Campaign was to augment the University’s relatively small endowment and raise funds for ambitious projects that would consolidate its status as a world-class centre for teaching, learning and research.

The Medical and Biological Sciences Building, North Haugh

Thanks to major donations from the Wolfson Foundation, the Garfield Weston Foundation and the Robertson and Yelsel Trusts, St Andrews was the first university in Scotland to fully integrate research facilities across medicine and the sciences in one custom-built School.

The Richardson Research Library at Martyrs Kirk

The University bought the vacant Martyrs Kirk from the Church of Scotland in 2012 and transformed and refitted the iconic building as a Research Library and University Collections Reading Room.

Major benefactors included the Carnegie Corporation of New York; the Northwood Charitable Trust; Michael Buchanan; Wendy and George David; Louise Richardson and Thomas Jevon; Sir Ewan and Lady Brown; Ian, Catherine and Lucy Ferguson; the Dunhill Links Foundation and the Binks Trust.

It was at the request of the Carnegie Corporation that the building was named The Richardson Research Library at Martyrs Kirk in honour of the former Principal on 23 June 2016.

The naming of the Richardson Research Library at Martyrs Kirk in 2016.

The Students' Association

After extensive redevelopment, the Students' Association was transformed and opened during orientation week in 2015. Since then, the building and its facilities have become very popular with both town and gown.

St Salvator's Quadrangle

St Salvator’s Quadrangle sits at the geographical and spiritual heart of the town. It is the setting for graduation – the most significant student rite of passage – as well as for international celebrations and community events. Over 1,500 alumni, family and friends from around the globe raised more than £700,000 towards refurbishing the Quad by taking the opportunity to have their names inscribed on the new flagstones.

History of the Quad

Sports centre

Thanks to the support of alumni, friends and donors, the University recently completed the renovation of the Sports Centre including a new eight-court sports arena, a new fitness suite and an enlarged strength and conditioning suite.

A state-of-the-art indoor tennis centre was made possible with generous funding from sportscotland, Tennis Scotland, the Lawn Tennis Association and the Horn family. The Schlenker Family Climbing Wall – designed by leading Scottish climber Scott Muir and constructed by Dream Climbing Walls is hugely popular with students and the local community. Renovations to the dance studio have also been completed, with kind support from the Krentz family.

Saints Sport redevelopment

The 130-station facility University gym was opened in January 2017.

The eight-court sports arena has seating for 400 people.

The Schlenker Family Climbing Wall is 8.5 meters high and allows for 15 pairs of climbers to use the wall at any one time.

The performance suite provides a dedicated space for University performance teams and athletes to train.

The four-court indoor tennis centre was the final project of the Sports Centre redevelopment.

Chair in Philosophy and Public Affairs and Endowed Lectureship in American Literature

A five million dollar donation from the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund in December 2016 enabled the University to establish a Chair in Philosophy and Public Affairs and completed the fundraising for an Endowed Lectureship in American Literature.

Thanks to this donation, Dr Kristen Treen was appointed as a lecturer in American Literature in September 2018, and Professor Imogen Dickie will take up the Shelby Cullom Davis Chair in Philosophy from July 2019.

Christopher Davis, who studied Philosophy and Practical Theology at St Andrews, arranged the donation. He felt that it was an appropriate way to give back:

"I owe more to St Andrews than I can say. The University’s ethos embodies values that are increasingly rare on campuses and in society: academic rigour, informed and open-minded debate, internationalism, good-willed collegiality and simple decency. In today’s world, what could be more deserving of support?"

Christopher Davis

Laidlaw Music Centre

Thanks to a transformational donation from the Laidlaw Foundation, a significant bequest from the late Jean McPherson and the support of alumni, parents and friends, the Laidlaw Music Centre has now been completed: the vision of award-winning architects Flanagan Lawrence has been realised.

The Laidlaw Music Centre will offer extraordinary and varied spaces for students, staff and community to sing, rehearse, perform and make music in all styles and genres.

The crowning glory of the new building is the McPherson Recital Room, with its reverberation chamber and a fully automated flooring system – the only one of its kind in the world.

As Director Michael Downes says, “It will encourage students to enjoy the sounds they’re making, enable them to experiment and go beyond their comfort zone and inspire them to develop their musicality. It’s also a space where professional musicians and those from the wider community will come to rehearse, record and perform – putting St Andrews in the centre of the musical map of Scotland and beyond.”

Enjoy a virtual look inside the Laidlaw Music Centre and listen to some of the Laidlaw Live performances that have recently been streamed from there.

Scholarships

As a result of the 600th Anniversary Campaign, over £27.7 million has been raised for scholarships and student support by more than 8,000 donors and the University has been able to set up over 500 new scholarships for disadvantaged students.

Your support has changed lives.

A thank you to staff

On Wednesday 19 June 2019 Professor Mapstone hosted an event in Lower College Hall to thank University staff for their contributions and support during the 600th Anniversary Campaign.

"This has been an enormous and successful team effort."

Professor Sally Mapstone
Principal and Vice-Chancellor

University of St Andrews staff — Members of University staff join the Principal and Vice-Chancellor for a celebration in Lower College Hall.

Looking to the future

The support from alumni, friends and families has allowed the University of St Andrews to have a wide-reaching impact on our people, their ambitions and the community – but to be successful, the University cannot standstill.

Plans for the future include the development and refurbishment of the Younger Hall, the creation of a ‘New College’ at the Madras site on South Street. And, as always, both undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships are a priority.

Credits

Graphics and design by the University of St Andrews digital communications team.

Content written by Sue Hill, Development unit.

Images provided by the University's Development unit.

Videos and editing by Ed Broughton, Corporate Communications and EikCaffery Creative.

Thanks

Many thanks to all alumni, donors, parents, friends and staff for their support during the 600th Anniversary Campaign. The Principal and Vice-Chancellor.

Contact

Email: donate@st-andrews.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1334 46 1906