More than 160,000 students are about to start a new term in Glasgow's further and higher education institutions. Ahead of tomorrow's 48-page Evening Times Student Guide, MAUREEN ELLIS asked eight graduates how their studies went Meet the celebs who got a big kick out of studying in Glasgow CAT HARVEY FROM THEATRE TO DJ SPOT the deliberate mistake in Cat Harvey's graduation garb: the Partick Thistle scarf.

The Real Radio breakfast DJ couldn't separate her study at Glasgow Uni - a Masters in theatre, film and TV - from studying the form of the Jags... and timetabling the Milngavie and Summerston Partick Thistle supporters' bus. "We used to sit at the back of our philosophy lectures working out times for buses to Brechin and places like that. It was quite funny."

The former Evening Times sportswriter graduated in 1994, then enrolled in a post-graduate diploma in journalism at Strathclyde from 1994-1995.

She now presents Real Radio's breakfast show with Robin Galloway.

FAVOURITE HAUNTS? "The Grosvenor Cafe - you'd go there for a full breakfast for 99p or a pancake with Nutella!"

CHERISHED MEMORY? "Cheap cider! And loads of dodgy nightclubs. Best of all was Kelvingrove Park on a sunny day when you were meant to be studying." ATTA YAQUB BUSINESS TO ACTING AWARD-winning director Ken Loach cast Atta Yaqub in his 2004 inter-racial romance Ae Fond Kiss.

Before this, the 28-year-old southsider and sometime model had his future mapped out doing community work as a counsellor with Pollokshields-based Youth Counselling Services Agency and coaching a young football team, Glasgow Ansar.

Atta completed a degree in technology and business students and a post-graduate in information management, both at Strathclyde.

"The acting was thrown up on me and I've had an amazing experience since then." Since Ae Fond Kiss, Atta has starred in Meet The Magoons and Nina's Heavenly Delights, and travelled to Pakistan for BBC documentary Karachi Uncovered.

FAVOURITE HAUNTS? "I would always be in Babaza - now Belo. I used to eat in Oko as well as the Candy Bar."

CHERISHED MEMORY? "When you're at school you only meet people from your immediate area, but at uni you've got people from a diverse mix of backgrounds." EMMA POLLOCK PHYSICIST TO MUSICIAN HANGING out with people who surrounded themselves with indie music, Emma Pollock discovered the sounds that would lead her to co-founding indie band The Delgados and setting up the Chemikal Underground record label.

"I met my husband Paul Savage (Delgados drummer). We used to drive about and listen to lots of Lanarkshire bands at a really loud volume in the car."

Emma studied laser physics and optoelectronics at Strathclyde University, graduating in 1994. "The subject is almost really romantic: it has nothing whatsoever to do with people or society - it just exists."

Emma's debut solo album Watch The Fireworks is released on September 17.

FAVOURITE HAUNTS? "We'd go to King Tut's two or three times a week to see bands."

CHERISHED MEMORY? "You may think yourself ridiculously busy when you're a student, but in reality you do have a lot of freedom and a lot of time." GARETH RUSSELL PSYCHOLOGY TO POP IT'S quite a jump from a bedroom in the Hebrides to playing bass with Idlewild.

But that's what happened to Gareth Russell after leaving Stornoway to become a student in Glasgow. The 29-year-old studied psychology at Glasgow Uni from 1995 to 1997.

Along with two friends from Lewis, Gareth formed Astrid and toured with Belle and Sebastian.

"I didn't finish the course because I was playing in Astrid and we got a record deal, so I decided to put my studies on hold and they've been on hold ever since!"

FAVOURITE HAUNTS? "I went to the Halt Bar on Saturday afternoons for open stage."

CHERISHED MEMORY? "I really enjoyed first year. We were in halls in a really cool building up on Great Western Road." RAMAN BHARDWAJ POLITICS TO SPORT RAMAN Bhardwaj, the face of sport on STV's Scotland Today, was a member of Glasgow University cricket team while studying politics and sociology in 1992-1996.

"Cricket was always dominated by Edinburgh and St Andrews, so more often than not we'd come back with our tails between our legs because they were always better than us.

"That was certainly the highlight... then eventually getting through your honours after messing around for four years."

Raman, who was born in the West End, joined STV as a current affairs researcher in January 1997 and became the main sports anchor in March 2002.

FAVOURITE HAUNTS? "We were always in the Beer Bar in Glasgow University Union. We'd meet up there and reflect on a very poor weekend's sporting performances by us or troop down to the Cul-De-Sac.

CHERISHED MEMORY? "I liked Latin American politics taught by David Stansfield, and sociology of industry by Bert Moorhouse. And obviously the long lie-ins when you had Wednesdays off." RODDY HART LAWYER TO SINGER THE sensible head on Glasgow singer-songwriter Roddy Hart's shoulders convinced him to get a good academic grounding.

"If you get the grades, it's either medicine or law and I'm too squeamish to be a doctor," said the 27-year-old, who did his degree and diploma at Glasgow University in 1997-2001.

Roddy, who first picked up a guitar aged 10 and wrote his first song at 15, supported Kris Kristofferson on a UK tour and supported The Trashcan Sinatras during a five-week tour of the US.

He released his debut album Bookmarks to critical acclaim last year.

FAVOURITE HAUNTS? "We would hang out in Byres Road, we'd go to the Garage and Alaska, which is the Buff Club now. And quite a lot of gig hangouts."

CHERISHED MEMORY? I made amazing friends." SHANTHA ROBERTS LANGUAGES TO TV LIVING in London has made Shantha Roberts misty-eyed about student life in Glasgow.

The 25-year-old face of MTV News (the same platform that launched the career of Edith Bowman) came to Glasgow to study languages in 2000 and had the time of her life.

"I really loved being able to walk around the West End without too many commitments apart from your part-time job.

"I feel so nostalgic about it because I'm down in London and I'm stuck in this crazy-paced place which doesn't really suit me at all. I'd give it up and go back in a second."

Shantha studied at Glasgow University for six years, chopping and changing between Italian, Russian and management before finally settling on French and German.

She met her boyfriend Jack during her first Freshers' Week outing and became a friendly face at the Gibson Street cafe Offshore, where she was encouraged to audition for TV.

CHERISHED MEMORY? "Making the friends that I've got now. We're all still very much in the bosom of each other."

FAVOURITE HAUNTS? "My favourite was the old, old Buff Club on Sauchiehall Street. It was like a converted living room. I remember once finding a washing basket on the street and Jack and a friend carried me along to it in that. It was stupid, ridiculous fun." SUHAYL SAADI DOCTOR TO AUTHOR THERE was never any question in Suhayl Saadi's mind that he would follow his father into a career in medicine.

"I had a Burke and Hare student life. I'd a skeleton in my room that my father had brought from Pakistan in the 1950s, carried bones under my arms and I didn't socialise," laughs Saadi. "I was deeply weird."

The Paisley-raised writer studied for his degree in medicine at the University of Glasgow between 1979 until 1984.

"The Union seemed to be peopled by rugby players who drank beer, whereas the Queen Margaret Union had lots of trendy arts students, so I didn't really fit into either."

Suhayl, 45, was a practising GP for 11 years in Govan, and published a collection of short stories, The Burning Mirror in 2001, and his first novel Psychoraag in 2004.

FAVOURITE HAUNT? "The fifth floor of the university library. I think I was emotionally retarded because I basically just swotted the whole time."

CHERISHED MEMORY? "I remember in first year one of the arts students wanted to see the anatomy museum, so I snuck him in. I eventually managed to escape but I don't know what happened to him ... he probably got bottled and specimened." FAMOUS FACES

THE alumni of Glasgow's main higher education institutions reads like a Who's Who of Scotland's political, cultural and business life. Here's a snapshot of the famous names among former students.

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY Famous graduates include authors Iain Banks, Denise Mina, Christopher Brookmyre and William Boyd, round-the-world yachtswoman Emma Richards, actor Greg Hemphill, newsreader Shereen Nanjiani, ex-Lord Provost Liz Cameron and politicians Charles Kennedy and Wendy Alexander.

UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE Scotland's third-largest university has matriculated Sir Tom Hunter, Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos, comedian Ed Byrne, Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini QC, politician Annabel Goldie and sports personalities Dougie Donnelly and Craig Brown.

GLASGOW CALEDONIAN UNIVERSITY Ex-students at the Cowcaddens campus include Billy Elliot star Gary Lewis, MSP Cathy Jamieson, Olympic gold medalist Rhona Martin, and sports commentators Jim Delahunt and Phil Differ.

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART Graduates include actors Robbie Coltrane and Peter Capaldi, presenter Muriel Gray, Travis frontman Fran Healy and Glasgow's poet laureate Liz Lochhead.

RSAMD Famous ex-students include actors Alan Cumming, Dawn Steele, Robert Carlyle, Billy Boyd, David Hayman, Daniela Nardini, James McAvoy and David Tennant.