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The recordings were made with the cooperation of numerous retired staff and alumni of the university. The sessions were conducted by members of the SURSA Oral History Group and often took place in the homes of the interviewees. The conversations were recorded using either a Marantz Professional Solid State recorder (PMD 661) or a Zoom H5 solid state recorder. The files are archived in *.wav format to maintain the highest quality. The audio you will hear through this web site is delivered in *.mp3 format to minimise file size, but will nevertheless be of excellent quality depending principally upon your computer's audio capabilities. Some recordings may exhibit low sound levels or background noises depending upon the interview location.
Video recordings were made by volunteer students recruited from as wide a variety of current degree programmes and year classes as possible. Interviews were conducted by students of the Communications, Media & Culture Department of the University in their recording studio in April 2016. Guidance from the OH committee was provided on the range of topics that might be covered but otherwise no intervention was made by the Oral History group or the CM&C Department. This segment took place under the supervison of Dr Dario Sinforiani of CM&C and was managed by Prof Christina Sommerville of the Oral History Group.
We are grateful to the volunteers who have prepared summaries and to Santander and SURSA for funding two student interns (Aimé Jaffré and Laura McLoughlin) who summarised most of the initial collection.
The original recordings are housed in the University Archives and are available to researchers - as well as to those of us who just wish to remember how life was (or hear what other people thought). This collection complements official written histories, as well as other Archive collections of University publications, films and photographs. In addition to searching this site, you are also welcome to search the University of Stirling's online archive CALM for other aspects of the university's history.
The SURSA Oral History Group has made every effort to ensure that the material on the web site does not breach applicable law or infringe any person's rights. The oral histories and other material collected, archived by the University of Stirling and made available through our web site is compliant with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). If you have concerns about any of the content, please contact UOS Archives. Please include the words "Oral history research" in the subject line.
