UHI announces three new honorary fellows
GAELIC singer Julie Fowlis is to be appointed one of three new honorary fellows of the prospective University of the Highlands and Islands where she is a postgraduate student.
Julie is studying for an MA in material culture and the environment (cultar dthchasach agus an rainneachd) through partner college Sabhal Mr Ostaig UHI.
Honorary fellowships will also be conferred on former UK energy minister Brian Wilson and Oliver Russell, trustee of the University of the Highlands and Islands Development Trust and chair of the campaign team, at the UHI annual lecture hosted by Lews Castle College UHI in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, on September 30.
The fellowships have been awarded in tribute to the service they have each given to their professions and communities as well as their support for UHI.
Professor Bob Cormack, the UHI principal, said: "Our distinguished new fellows have given tremendous support to UHI and we are delighted to honour them."
Julie, who was brought up in North Uist and Ross-shire, was the first ever Scottish Gaelic singer to win the BBC Radio 2 folk singer of the year award in 2008. After gaining her music performance honours degree at the University of Strathclyde, she studied the Gaelic language for 12 months at Sabhal Mr Ostaig UHI in Skye.
She then spent three years working for the Highland charity Fis Rois, encouraging children and adults to learn traditional song and music. Since then she has pursued her own successful music career full time.
Julie said: "It is a great honour to be receiving this fellowship and I am humbled to be associated with UHI in this way. I am proud to be able to continue my studies at postgraduate level in the Highlands and Islands through what will become our very own university."
Brian Wilson was formerly Labour MP for the Cunninghame North constituency. He held six government posts under Tony Blair including Scottish education minister and UK energy minister. A journalist and founding editor of the West Highland Free Press, he retired from politics in 2005 but remains a member of the Privy Council.
He now lives with his family in Uig, Lewis, and has a varied portfolio of private and public sector roles including chairman of Harris Tweed Hebrides at Shawbost in Lewis; energy policy adviser to Lews Castle College UHI; director of Sabhal Mor Ostaig Development Trust and also of Ionad Cholm Chille Ile, the Gaelic centre on Islay which he was instrumental in establishing.
Brian Wilson said: "UHI has a massive potential to create centres of academic excellence and opportunity in the furthest-flung corners of the Highlands and Islands. There is already plenty evidence of how this can work to the economic benefit of these communities and it has been a privilege to be involved in some aspects of this process".
Oliver Russell is a former director of merchant bank Samuel Montagu and a Sloan Fellow of the London Business School.
The eighth UHI annual lecture – the showpiece event of the year – with Professor Brenda Gourley, vice-chancellor of The Open University, who will talk on trends in higher education, is being held at the arts centre An Lanntair in Stornoway.
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Weather for Stornoway
Friday 25 May 2012
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