The following List of Alumni and Faculty of the University of Glasgow provides a selection of the well known people who have studied or taught at the University of Glasgow since its inception in 1451.

The list should be alphabetical within the main categories.

Past Principals of the University

• Donald MacAlister, 1907-29

Arts

Artists

• Hannah Frank, artist and sculptor

History

• Lewis Campbell, classical scholar
• Sidney Checkland , economic historian
• Florence Marian McNeill , social historian and author of "The Silver Bough"
• William Young Sellar, classical scholar
• Bernard Wasserstein, historian

Philosophy and Theology

• John Abernethy, Irish Presbyterian leader
• Alexander Bain, philosopher
• William Barclay, theologian
• James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow and St. Andrews, Primate of Scotland
• David Beaton, cardinal and Archbishop of St. Andrews
• Zachary Boyd, theologian
• William Elphinstone, statesman and bishop, founder of the University of Aberdeen
• Francis Hutcheson, theologian
• John Knox, protestant reformer
• Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury
• David Livingstone, missionary
• Andrew Melville, theologian and religious reformer
• Richard Price, philosopher
• Thomas Reid, philosopher
• Adam Smith, economist and philosopher
• Dugald Stewart, philosopher
• Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury

Writers and poets

• James Boswell, writer
• William Boyd, writer
• James Bridie (Osborne Henry Mavor) , dramatist and founder of the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre
• Christopher Brookmyre , writer
• John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir, writer and Governor General of Canada
• Robert Williams Buchanan, poet
• Thomas Campbell, poet
• Archibald Joseph Cronin, writer
• Janice Galloway , writer
• David Gray, poet
• James Herriot, writer
• Helen MacInnes , "queen of spy writers"
• Alistair MacLean, writer
• Ken MacLeod, writer
• William McIllvanney, writer
• Edwin Morgan, poet
• Tobias Smollett, writer
• John Wilson, writer
• Alasdair MacMhaighstir Alasdair, one of the greatest Gaelic bards and Jacobite captain

Politics

Conservative Party

• Eric Forth, MP
• Liam Fox, MP
• James Gray, MP
• Sir Teddy Taylor, MP

Labour Party

• Wendy Alexander, MSP
• Sarah Boyack, MSP
• Des Browne, Minister of State
• Margaret Curran, MSP
• Donald Dewar, the first First Minister of Scotland
• Sam Galbraith, former minister
• Jim Gallagher, Head of Justice Department for the Scottish Executive
• Derry Irvine, Lord Chancellor
• Thomas Johnston, Secretary of State for Scotland
• Johann Lamont, MSP
• Anne McGuire, MP
• Bridget Prentice, MP
• Gordon Prentice, MP
• John Smith, former party leader
• John Wheatley, politician
• Tony Worthington, MP

Liberal Party/Liberal Democrats

• Elspeth Attwooll, MEP for the Liberal Democrats
• James Bryce, liberal politician and jurist
• Sir Menzies Campbell, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats and Shadow Foreign Secretary
• Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Liberal Party Prime Minister
• Charles Kennedy, leader of the Liberal Democrats

Scottish National Party

• Annabelle Ewing, MSP
• Fergus Ewing, MSP
• Margaret Ewing, MSP
• Winnie Ewing, SNP President, former MP, MSP and MEP
• Ian Hamilton, Scottish Nationalist and Queen's Counsel
• Neil MacCormick, MEP
• Alasdair Morgan, MSP
• Shona Robison, MSP
• Nicola Sturgeon, MSP
• Andrew Welsh, MP

Other

• Hazel Aronson, Lady Cosgrove , first woman judge in Court of Session and High Court
• James Dalrymple, Viscount Stair , 17th century Scottish jurist
• John MacCormick, founder of the National Party of Scotland
• James Maxton, Independent Labour Party
• John Wheatley, Lord Advocate and Lord Justice Clerk

Nobel Laureates

• Sir Derek Barton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Sir James Black, winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine
• John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr , biologist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
• Sir William Ramsay, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Frederick Soddy, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Sir Alexander R. Todd , winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Sciences

Medical

• Robert Broom, physician
• Professor Ian Donald , pioneer of diagnostic and obstetric medical ultrasound
• John Hunter, surgeon
• William Hunter, anatomist and physician
• R. D. Laing, psychiatrist
• Joseph Lister, surgeon
• Donald MacAlister, also Principal of Glasgow University, 1907-29
• James McCune Smith, first professionally trained African-American doctor

Organic Sciences

• George Bentham, botanist
• David Douglas, botanist
• Thomas Graham, chemist

Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Engineering

• John HD Anderson, natural philosopher and founder of the University of Strathclyde
• John Logie Baird, inventor of television
• Joseph Black, physicist and chemist
• Professor John Brown, Astronomer Royal for Scotland
• Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell, astrophysicist
• Henry Dyer
• John Kerr, physicist
• Kazimierz Kuratowski, mathematician
• Colin Maclaurin, mathematician
• William John Macquorn Rankine, engineer and physicist
• John Scott Russell, naval engineer
• Robert Simson, mathematician
• William Thomson, mathematical physicist; later became Lord Kelvin
• James Watt, mathematician and engineer

Miscellaneous

• Andrew Faulds, actor and politician
• Sir James Frazer, social anthropologist
• John Grierson, film-maker, father of the "documentary film"
• Elsie Inglis, feminist and medical reformer
• John Jamieson, lexicographer
• Richard Claverhouse Jebb, classical scholar and politician
• Francis Jeffrey, judge and literary critic
• John Maclean, Scottish Marxist
• Thomas Muir, revolutionary
• Alec Nove , Soviet economic historian
• Andrew Neil, journalist and broadcaster
• Alan Smart, head of broadcasting in Scottish Parliament
• Gavin Vernon, Scottish Nationalist
• Gerard Butler, Actor, , The Phantom of the Opera