Interim Principal Announced for UHI West Highland

UHI West Highland has appointed Sue Macfarlane as Interim Principal and Chief Executive to lead the college into its recently announced merger with UHI North Highland and UHI Outer Hebrides.

This appointment will allow Lydia Rohmer to fully focus on her recent appointment as Principal Designate of the proposed new college - UHI North, West and Hebrides - which has an expected vesting date of August 2023.

Sue re-joins the college in January in a part time, temporary, role until August, having held the role of Depute Principal there from June 2015 to September 2019. She most recently served as Principal of UHI Outer Hebrides and will now continue to work closely with her colleagues Debbie Murray, Principal of UHI North Highland and Hannah Ritchie-Muir, Principal of UHI Outer Hebrides.

Sue explained:

“I fully expected to be enjoying retirement for a while, but the opportunity to contribute to what I know is going to be a successful merger of the three colleges was too great, I will enjoy working with colleagues from all three colleges again but in particular to ensuring UHI West Highland has sound representation across the college sector during this interim period and to overseeing the continued success of its staff and students.”

Sue has over 30 years of experience of working in the education and skills sector. Prior to her roles at UHI Outer Hebrides she was Director of Transformational Change at the University of the Highlands and Islands and also held senior management roles at SQA and Perth College UHI. Hailing from Yorkshire originally, Sue has lived and worked in Scotland for over 35 years, first working in the private sector before moving into further and higher education.

To support Sue during this period, Fiona Grant will be appointed Interim Depute Principal in addition to her current role as Director, Academic Affairs.

Lydia Rohmer added:

"On behalf of everyone at the College can I say how pleased we are to have Sue return to UHI West Highland to support staff and students for the rest of this academic year. We know that she will ensure our focus is on their success now as well as in the future merged college. It is vital that we appointed someone who knows us well and has the valuable experience within UHI to enable us to seamlessly continue to deliver a high quality education experience for students and help create a workforce that meets the present and future needs of the local community and economy."