GLASGOW'S former Dough School is to be celebrated with a new exhibition.

And hundreds of former graduates of the old West of Scotland College of Domestic Science – which became Glasgow Caledonian University – were invited to its launch.

The exhibition – The Dough School in the 1950s and 60s – saw former students reliving their youth.

Dr Vicky Long, lead researcher on the project, said: "This project highlights the important, and at times pioneering, role played by the Dough School and its graduates, who applied their knowledge of nutrition and a healthy diet in classrooms, canteens, hospitals and communities throughout Scotland.

"Graduates of the Dough School in the socially conservative post-war era combined family life with varied career paths."

Run by the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare, the oral history project saw former students tell their stories of their time at the Dough School.

Dorothy Cockrell, who graduated from the Dough School in 1955 and taught in secondary school until retirement, attended the launch of the exhibition.

A dress she created while a student is one of those on display. She said: "It's important that history is brought to life. It has to engage the intellect of the younger generation –reading about it is not the same. It's better to be able to touch it which is what this exhibition lets people do.

"I first found out about the event when I received a call from a fellow student. I knew I had the dress stored away and I wondered if it would be any use and they asked me to bring it along. I designed, made and modelled it myself. It seems a long time ago now."

The exhibition features interviews with former students from the 1950s and 1960s. These will eventually be stored with the University's archive.

Courses on offer at the Dough School, so named because students learned how to bake, included domestic science, institutional management and dietetics.

The Dough School became Queen's College in 1975 and eventually merged with Glasgow Polytechnic to form Glasgow Caledonian University in 1993.

At an event to mark the opening of the exhibition some former students learned how nutrition and dietetics are taught at GCU today.

Rhona Blincow, research outreach officer at the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare, who organised the event, said: "We are very grateful to them and to the wider group of alumni for their contribution."

catriona.stewart@eveningtimes.co.uk