McGill celebrates long-standing ties with University of Glasgow

To honour the long-standing intellectual, academic and medical ties that bind McGill University in Canada to the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, McGill awarded an honorary doctorate to Professor Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, and to Professor Sir Timothy O'Shea, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh. With educational links to McGill reaching back 200 years, the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh can be seen, in a way, as being responsible for the birth of McGill University. Indeed, because so many of the founders and early principals of McGill university and its medical school, including James McGill himself, studied at either the University of Glasgow or the University of Edinburgh, these institutions could be considered McGill's founding sisters. The connections between the universities have been further strengthened over the years through a shared commitment to the internationalization of education, expressed through a host of research collaborations and student exchanges. Professor Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow said, "James McGill, the founder of McGill, studied at Glasgow in the 1750s and we have maintained strong and enduring connections with McGill over the past two and a half centuries. There are more than 100 Canadian students currently studying with us at Glasgow, adding greatly to the campus life and student experience. This is a tremendous honour not just for me personally, but also for the community of the University of Glasgow." Prior to the ceremony, Principals Muscatelli and O'Shea unveiled three commemorative benches in the James Garden on the McGill campus.