Duke takes Salford Into the digital future
Duke opens MediaCityUK as part of Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Tour
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh will officially open the new University of Salford building at MediaCityUK as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Tour on March 23. His visit is the latest chapter of a fantastic story linking him to the University.
In fact, Prince Philip was there to witness the very beginning of the University in 1967, after the Queen awarded the Royal Charter, transforming the then Royal College of Advanced Technology into the University of Salford
Welcomed by a cheerful and numerous crowd, on the 15 June 1967 the Prince visited Salford to perform the opening ceremony for the Salford Technical College.
The next day he was installed as first Chancellor of the University of Salford in a ceremony held at Peel Park. After being introduced by Vice-Chancellor Clifford Whitworth, Prince Philip, wearing a gold-embroidered academic gown specially designed for the occasion, took to the stage to address the audience with a speech that showed how passionate he was about education.
"We meet together here with all the display of ceremonial, and almost knee deep in robes and ritual. But if this symbolism is not to be empty and meaningless, each one of us must feel a personal involvement and a personal ambition to give the University of Salford a sense of its own particular mission"...
With his usual direct and dry style he went to explain that "a University is not just a brain factory, a sort of conveyor belt for PhDs; neither is it a place to [go] for its own sake. It is a means to an end and not an end in itself."
"A university should measure its success just as much by the number of millionaires as by the number of Nobel Prize Winners which it produces."
Today, the University of Salford welcomes students from every part of the United Kingdom and over 100 countries, for a total of nearly 20,000 students.
And the Prince will see how Salford is moving into the future when he unveils a 3-D holographic animated display to officially open the MediaCityUK building. In 1967, he also promised that he would watch the progress of Salford University with great interest, something he continued with regular visits throughout the 1970s and occasional guest lectures, like the one that he held in 1982 entitled "Man and Nature".
Despite stepping down from his role as Chancellor in 1991 after more than 20 years – he still remains the longest running Chancellor in the history of the University.
The campus at MediaCityUK may well be what he was imagining while watching the model of the newborn University’s campus plans back in 1967.
You can keep up with all of the action from the official opening of the University of Salford at MediaCityUK on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
If you want to get involved on the day use the Twitter hashtag #UoSRoyal and keep an eye on the University’s homepage.
