Stephen Fry has revealed St Andrews students tried to hijack the bid to make him rector of Dundee University.
Speaking to Dundee University’s alumni magazine The Bridge, Mr Fry revealed St Andrews University students asked him to become thier rector after learning of Dundee’s bid.
The actor, comedian, writer and presenter was rector of Dundee University between 1992 and 1998.
He was first approached about becoming rector when students wrote to him.
Mr Fry said: “The notion of Rector was a strange one to anyone not acquainted with the Scottish university system but I was intrigued by it.
“I was pondering it when, a week later, I received a letter from students at St Andrews asking the same thing.
“Now, St Andrews may have looked more glamorous, on the face of it, to the uninitiated, what with the history and the robes and the golf. But I felt that Dundee had got there first and so it was only fair I stuck with them.
“I thought it sounded like an interesting adventure, so I wrote back and said I would be happy to have a go, and it was only then that I found out that one of the students had told a friend at St Andrews that they were asking me to be their Rector, and that had then prompted the efforts by the St Andrews students to undercut Dundee.
“That only confirmed I had made the right decision.”
The actor, who previously admitted taking cocaine in the students union in 1993, said his over-riding memory of his time at Dundee was the warmth of the welcome he received from students and staff alike.
He said: “They were very honest and straightforward, which was great.
“I think it is of great credit, remembering this was 25 years ago, that I arrived as an openly gay man and no one ever made an issue of that, I was warmly welcomed with open arms, and I think that said, and continues to say, so much for the University and for Dundee.
“It is a time I remember extremely fondly and ultimately I feel Dundee gave me more than I could give it. ”
He added that he is “thrilled” the university offers a prize in his name – The Stephen Fry Prize for Public Engagement in Research.
