The new boss of Inverness College has spoken of his “big ambitions” to turn the University of the Highlands and Islands into a world renowned institution.
Professor Chris O’Neil said there was no reason why the college and university could not develop a “global reputation” for its model of bringing together local, rural and urban communities.
The former UK Government adviser and head of Gray’s School of Art at Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University was speaking to the Press and Journal after succeeding Diane Rawlinson as principal of the college.
Prof O’Neil – who also backed calls for new sports facilities to be located at Inverness Campus – said he was attracted to the top job by the huge potential he sees in the UHI model and felt “genuinely privileged” to have the opportunity.
“I’m really, really excited about being in an environment that I think is absolutely magnificent,” he said.
“I think it was a combination of things that attracted me.
“I was involved as a chancellor of Thames Valley University where we developed tertiary model for education but at a time when the university was at serious risk of being closed down because we had huge financial problems and other very well documented problems, so the idea of tertiary education wasn’t ever really developed because it was all about crises management.
“My own family background, and my dad in particular, was all about education, the way that education and educators can actually change the world.
“And I think that a genuinely integrated tertiary model is probably the best model for developing communities, for developing science bases, for developing local industry – global industry.
“So we can remember that global always starts with local, and I think if we can manage this institution in the right way, the university generally, works in the way it was designed and set-up to way back when, then I think there’s no reason why UHI, and this (college) as a key part of UHI, shouldn’t develop a global reputation for understanding the way that local, rural and non-rural communities can actually influence the way that the world thinks and develops.
“I think that this is a really, really exciting place to be. I think the UHI has got big ambitions, that Scotland has got big ambitions for UHI, and I’ve got to tell you I’m really genuinely privileged to be a part and parcel of that.”