Interview: Matthew MacIver - Under starter's orders at our next university

Published on Tuesday 26 May 2009 20:28

AS A history scholar, Matthew MacIver recognises the approach of a new era, particularly as he plans to be part of it. The Highlands and Islands, he believes, is entering one of the key moments in its history, as it prepares to get a university for the first time.

He will not commit to a timescale, saying only the designation could be "within a few years", but he is in no doubt about the impact such a move will have on the area.

Professor MacIver has been appointed chairman-designate of the governors of the UHI Millennium Institute, the prospective university. He will officially succeed Colin MacKay on 1 January, 2010, but is already working on choosing a new principal to take over from Professor Bob Cormack, who also retires at the end of this year.

"We are on the brink of bringing to the Highlands and Islands a new institution which will be critical to the development of the region in the 21st century," Prof MacIver tells The Scotsman.

"This is not just about an educational development, but one that will be crucial to the economic and social development of the region also. It's a great opportunity for the area, but also a great opportunity for Scotland."

Like many before and after him, Lewis-born Prof MacIver had to leave his island home to further his education and career. After studying at Edinburgh University, he went on to become rector at Fortrose Academy in the Black Isle and the Royal High School in the capital.

More recently, he was chief executive and registrar of the General Teaching Council for Scotland and chairman of the Gaelic development agency, Brd na Gidhlig.

He is determined to ensure that those who leave the area in future will do so through choice rather than necessity.

"I'm one of the people who left and never really came back," he says. "That will go on – young people from our schools of course want to go to the big cities – but I believe there is now an opportunity to keep some of these young people and attract them to a university in the Highlands and Islands.

"And if we have a curriculum that is distinctive and attractive, we are also going to attract people from other parts of Scotland and other parts of the world to UHI."

He continues: "All these skills, strengths and talents in the past just left us. Some of them will still go, but I am really hopeful that some will now stay.

"And, just as important, some of the talent that leaves us from school will come back after they have been through their education to develop UHI."

UHI has been a university-in-waiting for too long. The idea has been discussed for centuries and the concept of a federal institution of colleges and research bodies spread across an area the size of Belgium linked by new technology was put forward in 1992 by Sir Graham Hills, the former principal of Strathclyde University.

It attracted little political backing, but much scepticism, until Michael Forsyth, the then Scottish secretary, gave his support in 1996. Within months the Millennium Commission had approved a grant of 33 million. To date, more than 160m has been spent on the project, and it has been estimated a further 100m needs to be spent over the next decade, although the economic return is reckoned to be 70m a year.

It was designated a higher education institution in 2001 and it had been hoped full university status would be granted by 2007. However, the Quality Assurance Agency said in October 2006 that more work needed to be done, and it also raised concerns about the number of honours graduates, as well as collective decision-making among UHI's partners.

Last year, the Privy Council awarded the institute the power to award taught degrees, a key stage in gaining full university status, which will allow it to attract academics and students from around the world.

It means UHI degrees no longer have to be validated by the Open University, but this achievement is still not the end of the road.

Such English institutions as the University of Cumbria, which was inspired by UHI, achieved university status more quickly, because the process is less rigorous down south.

In Scotland, new universities must prove they have a firm research base, which is not required south of the Border.

Some 7,600 students study at university level with UHI, through a network of 13 colleges and research institutions and more than 50 learning centres. At present, most are part-time and over 25, and fewer than 15 per cent come from outside the region.

Prof MacIver hopes that situation can change with a distinctive curriculum. Five new degree programmes were launched last year in sustainable construction, childhood practice, oral health science, health and wellbeing, and adventure tourism management.

Other subjects, such as renewables, the economics of rural development, marine biology and land use, could help to attract new blood to the area.

The institute's chairman-designate believes the area has missed out by not having a university.

"The geographical area of the UHI encompasses a population of over 500,000," he says. "If you look at it from that point of view, there is a huge case to be made for a university serving the needs of that kind of population.

"I am well aware of the needs, and sometimes the frustrations, of communities on the periphery," Prof MacIver goes on. "Now we have the chance to bring them in, in an inclusive way, to a higher education institution."

And the emphasis is on "inclusive". In the past, some of the network's outlying members have looked warily at Inverness, with a feeling that the institution may become too centralised. Prof MacIver is keen to avoid such talk.

"As someone who comes from a remote and rural area, I believe passionately that the strength of UHI is its distinct academic partners serving the needs of local communities," he says.

"We have to be aware that UHI serves an enormous geographical community, but individual needs are so important. Access to higher education for people in these areas should be the same as for those in Inverness or Perth."