2016 Honorary Fellowships
Dr Alistair Brian Michie
Dr Brian Michie was awarded an honorary fellowship of the University of the Highlands and Islands for his sustained and longstanding contribution to the health and welfare of remote and rural communities in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Dr Michie has been in professional medical practice for over thirty years and is Principal general practitioner and partner with the Group Practice in Stornoway. He is also Medical Director of the UK-wide civilian Search and Rescue Service and an advisor to the Scottish Ambulance Service and the Coastguard Service. His role within the Search and Rescue Service includes paramedical education and training together with clinical governance of the service. He has also taken part in more than 100 helicopter rescues.
Dr Michie has also made significant contributions to medical and paramedical education and training. In 1990 he joined a training practice where he took a full part in the education and supervision of GP-registrars, together with that of medical students from across the UK and from Holland, Germany, France and New Zealand, and with school students considering a career in medicine.
Throughout the 1990s Dr Michie was an Examiner for the Red Cross and is significantly involved with the training of Search and Rescue crews and winchmen. He is also involved with the training of Unscheduled Care Practitioners and nurses on the Advance Clinical Examination run by NHS Western Isles. He has been an instructor on the European Life Support course since 2013 and has been recommended as European Trauma Course Instructor. Dr Michie has also been significantly involved in the management of local services in the Western Isles, including longstanding secretary of the Local and Area Medical Committees, and lead GP and later Community Medical Director of the Western Isles NHS Board.
Professor David Battersby
Professor David Battersby is Vice-Chancellor of Federation University, Australia, and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the University of the Highlands and Islands for services to tertiary education and after a pioneering alliance was signed between the two universities.
Prof Battersby gained his PhD in 1981 from the University of the Waikato, in New Zealand, in the field of sociology. Prior to his appointment as vice-chancellor of the University of Ballarat in July 2006, he held various senior appointments at Charles Sturt University in New South Wales over nearly two decades. These included the positions of Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Head of Campus and Dean of Faculty. Prof Battersby also worked in New Zealand at Massey University for a period of eight years. He is the recipient of awards from the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Scheme, the Commonwealth Relations Trust, the Australian-Japan Foundation and the British Council. He has undertaken consultancies for UNESCO and the OECD and a number of government agencies.
Professor Clive Mulholland explained the links between the two institutions: “Neither of us are traditional universities. We are both different and are locally based, regional in structure but with national and international influence. We’re part of a new breed of tertiary institutions encompassing both further and higher education.” Professor David Battersby, said: “Despite the distance between Victoria and northern Scotland, Federation University Australia and University of the Highlands and Islands share very similar missions. They serve regional communities scattered across large distances where, in the past, people have found it very difficult to access training and education. Both universities are committed to building the social and economic resilience of their communities by providing high quality education and training and have been very successful in doing so.”
Professor Paddy Maher
Professor Paddy Maher is emeritus professor of the University of the Highlands and Islands and has had a long association with university education in the north of Scotland.
He has worked at the University of Aberdeen, the Open University and the University of the Highlands and Islands. Born in London, he studied plant science at Kings College, Durham and then undertook his PhD at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in plant biochemical genetics. In 1969 he joined the University of Aberdeen as a lecturer and was subsequently recruited by the recently established Open University as a part-time tutor for the north of Scotland. In 1982, Paddy took up a full-time post with the Open University in Edinburgh where he spent the next 23 years. He is also one of QAA’s longest serving consultants with service over 22 years.
In looking after the Open University’s interests in the Highlands and Islands, Paddy was familiar with most of the institutions which came together in what was then the UHI Project with the hope of setting up a new university. In 2004 he took up the post of Dean of Science and Technology, based at Moray College, and was tasked with helping to develop the new institution. In 2007 he took on the newly created role of Vice-Principal (learning and teaching) on an acting basis. This involved developing UHI’s new learning and teaching strategy, a vital aspect in the gaining of taught degree awarding powers in 2008 and later the award of full university status in 2011. Prof Maher joined the Moray College UHI board of management in 2010 and was an invaluable member until stepping down in the summer of 2016. His vast experience in learning, teaching, quality enhancement and research has been greatly valued by senior managers and board members, but he has also always been a keen advocate of partnership working with a strong energy and enthusiasm for the University of the Highlands and Islands.