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SFC Chair Graduation Speech to Edinburgh College Students

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SFC Chair Graduation Speech to Edinburgh College Students KEYNOTE ADDRESS EDINBURGH COLLEGE GRADUATIONS THURSDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER 2017 PROFESSOR ALICE BROWN Principal, Chair, Ladies & Gentleman and Graduands, I am extremely honoured to be asked to be your guest speaker today. Seeing all of you here, supported by your families and friends, takes me back to my former role as an academic and Vice-Principal at the University of Edinburgh and the buzz and excitement of Graduation Day. I am delighted, therefore, to share this day of celebration with you. I am particularly pleased to be at this Edinburgh College’s Graduation Ceremony because it is where – as a student of Stevenson College - I began a journey that was to transform my life. (Stevenson was of the three Colleges that were merged to become Edinburgh College a few years ago.) It also gives me the chance to say ‘thank you’ because my family owe so much to the College. My husband returned to study at Stevenson College in his mid-20s and went on to graduate with an Honours History Degree from the University of Edinburgh before developing his career as a Lecturer and then as a Manager at the College. It was during this time that I caught the ‘learning bug’ from him – typing up his essays, looking at some of the books he was reading – and I made the decision to return to study at Stevenson myself in my mid-30s. The encouragement and advice I received from staff at the College helped build my confidence and were invaluable to me in pursuing further study at the University of Edinburgh and in developing my career over the years. I am, therefore, hugely grateful to the sector and am passionate in my support for education and lifelong learning, and for what this College and others do to open up opportunities for all to realise their full potential. If you will indulge me I would like to tell you a little bit about how such opportunities opened up for me. I am often asked to speak about my career which is a bit embarrassing as I have to confess that I am not a very good role model in some respects. I left school at the age of 15 - without the consent of my parents - and ventured into the job 1 market. At that time I had no career plans and had no knowledge of what Colleges did or what University life involved. I should tell you that the only other option I considered was to accept a Scholarship that I won to go to the Royal Ballet School in London but I was too lacking in confidence to consider it seriously. More on than later. I started work as a shorthand typist with an insurance company. I did not know that they had very traditional attitudes to the role of women at work but I soon found out. All the women in the organisation had to wear a blue nylon overall buttoned from the neck down so as “not to distract the men from their work’! It was also company policy not to employ married women. Therefore, when I decided to get married in 1965 – during the so-called swinging sixties – I had to leave and find a new job. I went on to work as a Secretary for a firm of Surveyors in Edinburgh who happily did not have the same objections to employing married women. During this period I had my two children and, as I said earlier, I made the decision to return to part-time study at College in my mid-30s. At College I obtained the necessary Highers I needed to go to Edinburgh University where I became a full-time student, studying for an Economics and Politics degree. My first day at University did not go well – I felt totally intimidated and out of my depth - and I came home and said to my husband that I was not going back. However, I overcame my initial nerves and graduated in 1983. Since then, I have been incredibly fortunate and opportunities have opened up in often very surprising ways. I won a scholarship to study for a PhD and that began my career in higher education. I started as a Lecturer in Economics and then Politics at the University of Edinburgh and was lucky to get rapid promotion – first as Senior Lecturer, then as Head of Department of Politics (the first woman) followed by Head of the Planning Unit. I was then awarded a Personal Chair and was appointed as Co- Director of the University’s Institute of Governance and later as a Vice Principal – again the first woman in this role. One of the things I am particularly proud of was initiating and developing the first Access course between the University and Stevenson College. To begin with I have to confess that the University Admissions people were sceptical but through providing the evidence of just how well people from different backgrounds and 2 different ages had done when they were admitted to University, the new course was launched and went from strength to strength. (Last year I was invited out to lunch by some of the students who graduated from the very first Access course as they wanted to celebrate their 30th anniversary. It was extremely rewarding to hear what they are doing now and how the course had changed their lives.) But my academic career was not all plain sailing and I encountered difficulties on the way. For example at an early stage, when I had a difference of opinion with a Head of Department, he told me that he would make sure that I would never work again. As you can imagine this was not an ideal start. However, I also had very positive experiences and indeed would not have been able to progress as I did without the advice and support of a number of colleagues, in particular my first Head of Department of Politics (Professor Malcolm Anderson) and the Principal of the University at the time (Lord Sutherland). In my work at the University, I taught a number of different courses, including the Access course, and researched a range of different subjects. I was always interested in working with organisations outside the University and pursuing ways in which evidence from my research could be used to support different campaigns and policies. For example, because I studied economics and labour market policy, I was able to publish on topics including the minimum wage and training schemes – issues that had a direct impact on policy and practice especially given the high rate of unemployment in the 1980s. I was fortunate too to be interested in Scottish politics and equal opportunities at a time of significant constitutional change in Scotland in the 1980s and 1990s. Little did I know when I embarked on my degree that I would later be invited by the late Donald Dewar (then Secretary of State for Scotland and later Scotland’s first First Minister) to be a member of the Group that was asked to design the procedures for a new Scottish Parliament. I was also involved in giving advice on electoral systems and was able to play a part in the processes that resulted in a dramatic rise in the representation of women as MSPs to a level of almost 40% in the first elections for the new Parliament in 1999 – bringing Scotland to near the top of the world table in women’s representation. I thoroughly enjoyed my time as an academic at the University. However, in 2002 I made a major career move when I applied for and was appointed as Scotland’s first Public Services Ombudsman. This meant leaving the University and that was a big and scary step. 3 There is a bit of an irony in the title ‘Ombudsman’ especially given my involvement in campaigns for equality. Indeed there was a debate in the Scottish Parliament about whether they should use the term ‘Ombudsman’ in the legislation or whether this would be contrary to one of the founding principles of equal opportunities. I also received a complaint from a member of the public on the grounds that I was calling myself an Ombudsman when I was not a man. I have to admit that the term ‘Ombudsman’ does confuse the public and I received letters addressed in a variety of ways such as ‘Dear Omnibus’ or the one I liked best, ‘Dear Ombudsbird’. I learned a lot in carrying out the role of Ombudsman which involves taking complaints from members of the public about a wide range of public services and helping to correct injustices when they have occurred. It gave me a unique insight into all areas of public life; the problems that people often face in engaging with public bodies including the health service, local authorities and housing associations; and what needs to be done to improve the delivery of public services. But I also learned a valuable lesson about treating other people the way in which you would like to be treated yourself which I will return to later. I retired from this role and full-time employment 8 years ago, but found it difficult to say ‘no’ when other opportunities arose. For example, I was elected as the first woman to be General Secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh which is Scotland’s national academy. And four years ago I was appointed as the first woman to be Chair of the Scottish Funding Council. With a budget of around £1.6b that is distributed to universities and colleges, I suddenly found myself being very popular and invited out to lunch and dinner – I wonder why! It has been a great privilege to be the Chair of SFC and, in spite of many challenges on the way, I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
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