The University of St Andrews 600th Anniversary Campaign has now launched, with the support of alumni and friends around the world including former US President Bill Clinton, James Bond icon Sir Sean Connery, Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond, and Harvard President, Drew Gilpin Faust. Here you can read their warm words:
President Clinton said:
President Bill Clinton“Congratulations to all those gathered to launch the 600th anniversary of the University of St Andrews.
“In its six-century history, the University of St Andrews has remained dedicated to creating an academic home for people of all ethnic, religious, socio-economic and national backgrounds. As new generations of students have entered its halls, the school has adapted to serve new interests and emerging areas of study. But throughout its history, St Andrews has remained true to values of academic excellence for which it was established.
“I’d like to thank this fine school for creating opportunities for students from around the world to study in Scotland. St Andrews has helped guide and inspire America’s past and future leaders throughout our history; three signatories of our Declaration of Independence held a connection to the University, and thousands of American students are welcomed here each year for study abroad.
“I am confident that the University will continue to build on its impressive legacy, endowing future generations with the honor of a St Andrews education. Best wishes for a wonderful celebration.”
Bond star and St Andrews honorary graduate Sean Connery offered his congratulations to a university “dear to his heart”. He said:
Sean Connery There is nothing like a challenge to bring out the best in man, and for six centuries St Andrews has been challenging established wisdom and challenging its students and teachers to push the boundaries of knowledge.
“Scotland has a few precious claims to be world class – her first university is one of them.
“This university will always be dear to my heart and I’m proud to be an honorary graduate of a place where good is never good enough. Ever to be the best. Happy Birthday St Andrews, lang may your lum reek.”
First Minister Alex Salmond said:
“The University of St Andrews is globally recognised as an institution of academic excellence and it is important that we celebrate its achievements and proud history.
“As a St Andrews graduate, I am delighted to support the University’s 600th Anniversary celebrations and appeal. The Appeal aims to create scholarship opportunities which will help young people, of all backgrounds, have the opportunity to study at Scotland’s oldest University.
“Scotland’s reputation for innovation and world-class research is founded on the work and intellectual achievements of our academic institutions. I wish St Andrews every success in the future as it reflects on its achievements over the past 600 years.”
Actor and presenter Nicholas Parsons said:
“I look back on the three years I spent as Rector of the University of St Andrews with huge pleasure. It was a most rewarding experience being associated with such an eminent seat of learning. St Andrews is unique, a most attractive town with wonderful buildings and an atmosphere which is inducive to study and research. Any student who is accepted there feels special and to be involved in the academic side of this great University, is a privilege I will always treasure.
“Best wishes for the success of the Anniversary Campaign.”
Joanna Lumley said:
“I send my warmest good wishes and congratulations on this momentous celebration. May this pre-eminent seat of learning go from strength to strength; I look forward to visiting the university in the near future, and until I can deliver them in person I send my fondest thoughts to all who teach, and learn, in this fabulous establishment.”
Dame Judi Dench said:
“Happy Birthday St Andrews! I am inordinately proud to be an Honorary Graduate of Scotland's foremost University, and to be a tiny part of its sensational history. I shall be with you in spirit for all the celebrations.”
Poet and novelist Jackie Kay said:
“The University of St Andrews is a rare place: a place of deep learning that also has a lovely family-feel. The university has all the passion and history of the nearby sea, but also a lovely way of incorporating the current. It is a place which allows its students to look back to the past with pride and forward to the future with confidence.”
Ernest L Ransome, III said:
“It is my honour to extend the University of St Andrews congratulations on their 600th Anniversary. My association with St Andrews has been marked with events that have served to become some of my most cherished memories. At the top of this list is the scholarship trust a group of my friends in 1994 established in my name. Each year four graduate and four undergraduate students attend the University of St Andrews under The Ransome Scholarship. The scholarship provides each student their full tuition fees, housing, book allowance, spending allowance and two roundtrip airfare tickets back to their home each year.
“Almost every student has told me that the opportunity to be able to attend this wonderful university and receive such an outstanding education was a life changing experience. It is one of my great pleasures to keep in contact with many of the students and to follow their career after graduation. Knowing that they might not have had the opportunity to pursue their dreams and fine careers without the help of this scholarship is unbelievably rewarding for me.
“So again, Happy 600th Birthday St Andrews. May you continue to provide excellence in teaching and academics for another 600 years.”
Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust said:
“This magnificent milestone will deservedly be the cause of tremendous celebration for everyone associated with this storied place of learning. Six centuries of academic excellence, a still growing record of groundbreaking contributions in medicine, astronomy and mathematics, and an intellectual roster that has included minds as varied as John Stuart Mill and JM Barrie are distinctions unique to St Andrews but from which every university can take inspiration.
“The students and alumni of St Andrews can be proud of their alma mater’s reputation as not only one of the world’s oldest institutions of higher learning, but as a truly twenty-first century university with a diverse and international student body and faculty.”
Former Presiding Officer Lord David Steel of Aikwood said:
“St Andrews is unique. Heartiest congratulations and here's to our next 600 years!”
Sir Tom Farmer said:
“For 600 years the University of St Andrews has been a centre of learning and academic excellence. I am proud to be an Honorary Graduate and wish the University every success with its Anniversary Campaign, and for the next 600 years.”
Composer Craig Armstrong said:
“I would like to wish the University of St Andrews a very happy 600th Anniversary. It's a great honour for me to be associated with the university. Long may it continue its high standard of learning, teaching and inspiring academic excellence.”
Dame Bridget Ogilvie said:
“I congratulate St Andrews and wish it continued success as it begins to celebrate 600 years since foundation. Universities are one of the most enduring human institutions and their value is best illustrated by the lives of their alumnae. I write this from the region of Australia south of Sydney where a St Andrews alumnus, Alexander Berry settled in the 19th century, contributed greatly to the community, and prospered so much that in 1897 he gave St Andrews £100,000, used to endow Berry Chairs.
“In the fiercely competitive university world of this century, St Andrews is flourishing. I admire its history, its leaders and think it is a perfect size both from the undergraduate point of view and that of its staff.
“These comments illustrate why I regard my honorary degree from St Andrews such a privilege and am so glad to be asked to send this message at the start of this important three years.”
John Kerr (Lord Kerr of Kinlochard) said:
“Congratulations on six triumphant centuries of expertise in International Relations.”
Kay Redfield Jamison, Professor of Psychiatry, said:
“Since my undergraduate days, St Andrews keeps a place in my heart that is in equal parts beauty, learning and imagination; a place whose essence is ancient and modern.”
The Very Reverend Professor Iain R Torrance, President of Princeton Theological Seminary and Professor of Patristics, said:
“My experience at St Andrews, of which I am proud to be a double graduate (BD 1974 and DD 2005), has been one of the greatest gifts in my life.
“Long may St Andrews flourish, and may God bless her and all who study within her walls.”
Dr Renee Powell said:
“I am thrilled as an honorary graduate of the University of St Andrews to be able to share in the 600th year celebration of the oldest university in Scotland and one of the most prestigious universities in the world. It is my plan to return during the Anniversary Campaign.
“Having received an Honorary Doctor of Law was the highlight of my life and having my 91 year old father who had served in Scotland during WWII witness such an occasion was just as special.”
Professor Sir Alan Peacock said:
“May later generations of students tangibly benefit from present efforts to secure the future of our beloved Alma Mater.”
Lord Mackay of Clashfern said:
“I started my working life in our great university. I treasure the atmosphere of learning and history that prevailed, enhanced by a tour of the Cathedral with Ronald Cant which left me feeling I had seen the monks carrying out their services.”
American author and journalist Adam Hochschild:
“From one third of the way around the world, from a nation little more than one third as old as St Andrews, I send you warmest greetings on this momentous anniversary. Your university is an example to us all, not just in longevity, but, more important, in excellence. Best wishes for the next 600 years!”
Sir John Sunderland said:
“A 600th anniversary celebration is a rare privilege but one that will be shared by many. As one of that many I wish St Andrews every success in the activities that attend this important milestone”
2006 St Andrews Honorary Doctorate, Environmentalist, Nature Writer and Lecturer Sir John Lister-Kaye OBE said:
“For 600 years the University of St Andrews has held its own as one of the finest seats of academic excellence in the world. I am immensely proud to be listed among its keenest supporters. St Andrews I salute you: ‘Quo non praestantior alter’ – Than whom none more excellent!”
Sir Craig Reedie, Executive Board Member of the International Olympic Committee, said:
“I wish the University of St Andrews the warmest congratulations and best wishes on this momentous birthday. The contribution made by the University to education and to the well-being of young people over these six centuries has been a huge contribution to the quality of life of Scotland and St Andrews graduates have made similar contributions all round the world.
“The Olympic values of excellence, respect and friendship fit well with the ethos of the University and will guide it as it moves into an exciting future.”
Lord Brian Gill said:
“The years 2011 to 2013 will be a time of deserved celebration at St Andrews. For six centuries this famous University has been one of Scotland's most important institutions. Today it is one of the world's leading universities. It is a centre of excellence in teaching and research noted for its imaginative and innovative approach. I send every good wish to the staff and students for the success of the Anniversary Campaign and for the continued prosperity of the University.”
Broadcaster Sheena McDonald said:
“As a humble honorary graduand of the University, I am delighted that this anniversary campaign is being launched! It is a great opportunity for everyone with any association with St Andrews to celebrate the invaluable contribution that the university has made to the intellectual and social wealth of the world's nations through educating innumerable men and women, and enabling them to broadcast further what they have learned in this extraordinary town. No donation is too small or too large - and every penny given represents a well-targeted and genuinely lively investment!”
Sir Bob Reid said:
“St Andrews is a magic place edged by sea and golden sands, mystical in its saintly name and blessed six hundred years ago to host a University; a University which would send its students to contribute to the commonweal of the countries from which they came. It is for this we give thanks and celebrate.”
Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks said:
“I am delighted to send my blessings and congratulations to you on this remarkable milestone celebration. In its 600th year, the University of St Andrews remains one of the finest institutions of its kind, not only in Scotland, but in Europe and the world.
“I am proud to count myself as one of its honorary graduates, and I have found my visits to the university inspirational, in terms of its academic fellowship and breadth of horizons.
“I wish you every blessing in the coming year and success for many generations to come.”
Professor Sir David King, University of Oxford, said:
“As an honorary graduate of the University I am delighted to join the chorus of congratulations on your 600th Anniversary. The University has developed a remarkable global reputation for excellence in teaching and research. I wish it well in developing the global thought leaders we need to fortify us for the challenges we now face.”
Alison Elliot OBE, Associate Director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at the University of Edinburgh, said:
“Congratulations to the University of St Andrews for keeping the flame of academic excellence burning brightly for 600 years. St Andrews is a byword for first class research, committed students and graduates who gain distinction in their later careers. I am proud to be associated with the university and am confident that it will continue to nurture a spirit of enthusiastic intellectual curiosity at the heart of Scottish society for generations to come.”
