Glasgow uni roadworks are ruining my degree

They’re making our pretty uni look horrible


I hate them. You hate them. We all hate them.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will have noticed the plethora of road works that has plagued the once beautiful University of Glasgow. Running all the way from the Joseph Black building to the front door of the GUU, these roadworks have been somewhat of a nuisance, and when I say somewhat of a nuisance I do of course mean they have been ruining everyone’s lives for the past year. 

They’ve been going on forever and it’s unclear what they’re even for

I have lived in a city for the majority of my life, so when roadworks begin, I accept it and move on. In a week or two, they will be gone, the job will be done and I can glide over fresh tarmac like nothing ever happened. This monstrosity however, needed an explanation after week four. The university, in alliance with Crown House Technologies Limited, has invested millions of pounds into reconstructing the heating system on campus. This new system is economically efficient and will help the university reduce its carbon emissions by 20 per cent. Pretty decent right? Worth the extra time you have to spend getting to class? Nah, not really.

There is no escaping it

I soon discovered that there is no avoiding this catastrophe. Living in Finnieston last year was wonderful, but as the roadworks snuck their way into my daily campus life, I started getting impatient. Crawling up University Avenue at snail’s pace because of multiple holes in the ground is not okay, and is certainly not what the non-Scottish students are paying £9,000 a year for (sorry lads). I figured I’d switch it up this year and I moved to Partick, meaning I would enter the uni from a completely different side. Wrong. The entire Western Infirmary link to Byres Road has been torn out, so now I can’t even walk to uni with my earphones on in case I get crushed by a passing JCB.

They make you look like you don’t have a fucking clue what you’re doing

Sometimes taking a break from the library is nice. Giving yourself a week doing “home study” (two seasons of Brooklyn Nine-Nine in four days) and staying as far away from Gilmorehill as possible is necessary during stressful periods. But when you come back, leave the library and attempt to cut back down the path to University Gardens, you will probably be stumped. As you confidently strut towards the path that has been open for two weeks, you get far enough down it before hitting a sign that says “PATH CLOSED”. Your mind starts spinning. Where do I go? What do I do? Who saw me do that? You desperately struggle to find a new path, being constantly bombarded with yellow signs and warning tape. You eventually stumble down to University Gardens, breathless, disorientated and crying.

They make our usually pretty uni look horrible

Glasgow uni is gorgeous. It looks like Hogwarts. But I never thought I would feel so betrayed when that beauty was compromised. These roadworks are visible to everyone: students, tourists, friends and family. Catriona, 21, studies primary teaching and said: “I absolutely hate them. Showing my friends from England around make me embarrassed at how untidy it makes our uni look.”

We have spoken, Glasgow Uni. We don’t want to graduate under scaffolding to the sound of builders singing classics of the ’80s. Let this madness end before my degree does.