Impact on Research

The resource generated by this project will greatly enhance access to these research collections in a wide range of academic disciplines in the humanities, social sciences and, to a lesser extent, medicine and science. It will especially facilitate comparative study of Scottish Higher Education Institutions and their predecessor institutions enabling a full assessment of higher education in Scotland and allowing innovative comparisons with other UK, European and international systems.

Professor Robert Anderson, Head of Edinburgh University's History Department and a major exponent of Scottish Educational History is a supporter of the project:

“The archives for Scottish university history are among the richest, but also least exploited, among those of educational institutions. Geographical separation and the lack in some cases of adequate published guides are part of the reason for this. Thus the proposed Online resource would be of enormous value both nationally and internationally, and should directly promote new fundamental research as well as drawing wider attention to Scotland's intellectual and cultural contribution to the modern world.”

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Dr Lawrence Williams of Dundee University's History Department said GASHE:

“will throw invaluable light on two themes which are currently exercising economic and political historians respectively; the relationship between higher education and economic performance and the expanding role of central government in higher education policy making.”

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Dr Mike French, Head of the University of Glasgow School of History & Archaeology, is keen to see this project funded. He said GASHE:

“would certainly provide scope for extensive research, including comparative work, on the educational institutions, their social connections and facilitate research on a diverse and extensive range of sources relevant to economic, social and business history.”

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Research into the field of education itself was identified by the CVCP as a priority in response to the Dearing Report (March 1999). Professor George Thomson co-director of Edinburgh University's Institute for the Study of Education and Society has commented:

“I would find the availability of such a proposed catalogue of archival material a beneficial source not just for my own research interests, for example tracing the emergence over time of the profession of educational psychologists, but also the ability to access prime records of how Scottish Universities developed their curricula and structures to deliver the same. There is a need for a serious critique of how universities’ have become modularised - that could be immeasurably informed by accessing an archival data base of the sort outlined.”

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