New Chancellor, HRH The Princess Royal, to award first fellowships of the University of the Highlands and Islands
Former Principal, Professor Robert Cormack and Chair of the Board of Governors, Colin MacKay CBE, are to be presented with the first ever honorary fellowships of the University of the Highlands and Islands.
The awards will be made by The Princess Royal at the ceremony to install HRH as the new Chancellor of the university in Inverness Cathedral on Thursday 7th June.
Emeritus Professor Robert Cormack served as Principal of UHI Millennium Institute, the predecessor to the university, from 2001 to 2009. Under his leadership UHI achieved taught degree awarding powers in 2008 and reached the final stages in the process for university title.
Professor Cormack, who hails from Montrose, came to the Highlands following 27 years at Queen’s University in Belfast, where he was latterly a pro-vice chancellor. His service at Queen’s spanned the troubles in Northern Ireland. He became a leading specialist and author on equal opportunities, discrimination and public policy and worked with the United Nations in Kosovo following the conflict in that region.
Professor Cormack said: “I am delighted at the prospect of receiving a Fellowship of the University of the Highlands and Islands from the new Chancellor, HRH The Princess Royal. My time with UHI was the high point of my career. I am particularly pleased to be receiving this honour alongside my friend and colleague, Colin Mackay. Working with Colin as chair of the UHI Board of Governors was a pleasure and a great support to me through often challenging times.”
Colin MacKay CBE, a retired consultant surgeon and Past President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, was awarded the CBE in 2000. The Royal College was involved in the training and continuing education of consultant physicians, surgeons and dentists. Colin MacKay, who has family connections to Argyll and Wester Ross, chaired the Board of Governors of UHI Millennium Institute from September 2001 until December 2009.
Under Colin’s chairmanship UHI moved from being a project to being recognised throughout the world as an innovative institution, delivering higher education in a sparsely populated region.
He said: “I am greatly honoured to receive the Fellowship of Scotland's newest university especially at the installation ceremony of the Chancellor HRH The Princess Royal. Bob Cormack and I started and finished together; to be honoured together is an additional pleasure. The occasion will be a reminder of one of the most challenging, stimulating, exciting, rewarding and enjoyable periods in my professional life.”
James Fraser, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the university, said: “It is entirely appropriate that our former Principal and Chair are honoured at this special event by our new Chancellor. We owe them so much and it is down to their persistence and determination that we now have the university our region justly deserves. I am delighted to pay tribute to them both.”
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