After the outbreak of World War I, developments for the teacher training college were put on hold, as the former manor house was taken over as a temporary military hospital.

With the new school completed in 1920[1] and the college in 1921, the now Grade B listed David Stow Building facilitated all teacher training provided under the unified University of Glasgow.

[2] Centrally funded and with no ties with churches, the college was largely non-residential (two small hostels were built, one in 1921 and the second in 1931); and its range of work was wider.

The only important changes both took place in 1931 when the two-year primary course was extended to three years (and limited exclusively to women), and the Scottish School of Physical Education (SSPE) was created to train all the male PE teachers in Scotland.

In 1964, the college began courses to train students for the youth and community service; in 1967 it began courses for social workers; in 1968 the Glasgow School of Speech Therapy moved to Jordanhill and became the Department of Speech Therapy; and in 1970 all the training of teachers for further education colleges in Scotland was centralised in a School of Further Education.

The smaller Hamilton College was closed in line with UK national policy, with most of its staff absorbed into Jordanhill.