9 February 2007

Deja vu for University employee

One University of Dundee employee will be suffering from deja vu today (FRI) as the institution celebrates its 40th anniversary at the Caird Hall.

George Whyte, finance officer for the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences was at the Caird Hall in 1967 when staff and students joined together to celebrate the University gaining independence.

George says, "I had only been working at the University for a few months when it got full independence from St Andrews. It didn’t matter much to me as I was a new boy, but everybody round me was excited and that was infectious, so we all ended up pretty pleased about the whole thing."

"On the day itself all the staff were invited to the Caird Hall, so we trooped down to hear the speakers. Then the Physics department had a small celebration in the Tower building."

"I started as a technician in workshops and labs, then became Chief technician which involved more financial work. I then moved over to the finance side of the operation and now I am finance officer for the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences."

"The university has changed a lot over the years - it has become so much bigger for a start and most of the students came from the UK, but now you hear voices from all over the world, which is great."

"It is also a lot more professional - now we buy in much more sophisticated equipment, we used to make a lot of it. People are also more commercially aware. Researchers see their projects all the way through. In the old days they would simply publish a paper and let somebody else act on the idea."

"I still enjoy working here - I must do, or I wouldn’t have stayed."

For media enquiries contact:

Anna Day
Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: a.c.day@dundee.ac.uk