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The GUU was formed as a gentlemans club for students at the university in 1885. It was not until 1890 that they managed to raise sufficient funds to build a residence for their activities. The union's formation was driven by a number of active bodies at the university, such as the debating society, medical society and athletic club.
The GUU is well known as being strong for the number of university debaters it has produced, and its debates society has won 5 world debating championships. It is also well known for the number of high profile political figures who have been members. Both Donald Dewar and Charles Kennedy have been union presidents in the past, and figures such as John Smith, Menzies Campbell and Derry Irvine were active there too.
In 1977 there was a referendum to merge the two Glasgow unions, GUU and QMU, but this was defeated by an overwhelming majority. An interesting aspect of the GUU's history is that it was in fact the last student union in the world to have a policy of allowing only men to become members, admitting women to membership only in 1980, and then only under threat of having its funding removed by the university court.
By reputation the GUU is regarded as the "right wing" student union at Glasgow, while the QM is the "left" or "progressive" union.