24 June 2010

Portrait of former Principal to be unveiled

Photo opportunities: 9.30am on Friday, June 25th at Robing Rooms, City Chambers, Dundee. Sir Alan will be available for photos ahead of being awarded an Honorary Degree from the University.

5pm on Friday, June 25th at Ustinov Room, Bonar Hall, Dundee. Sir Alan and Lady Langlands will attend the unveiling ceremony.

A portrait of Sir Alan Langlands, former Principal and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Dundee, will be unveiled during the University’s annual Graduation celebrations later this week.

Sir Alan, who spent eight years in the role before taking up the position of Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England last April, will return to Dundee to receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University on Friday, June 25th.

Afterwards he and his wife will be taken to the Ustinov Room, Bonar Hall, where Professor Pete Downes, current Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University, will unveil the portrait at 5pm. It will hang on the wall alongside portraits of all other previous University Principals.

The portrait was painted by Professor Calum Colvin, Personal Chair of Fine Art Photography at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, part of the University. Professor Colvin, who has exhibited at galleries across the world and who has won several prestigious awards for his work, will be attending the ceremony, as will several University dignitaries and former colleagues of Sir Alan.

Professor Downes paid tribute to his predecessor and talked about the significance of his portrait joining those on display, saying, 'The portraits of past Principals, which hang in the Ustinov Room of the Bonar Hall, symbolise the great traditions and history of our University.'

'Sir Alan was far from being a traditional Principal and, fittingly, his portrait is far from traditional too. In so many ways he transformed the University to one of greater confidence and ambition and laid the foundations of infrastructure and key appointments upon which ambitions could be built.'

Sir Alan graduated with a degree in biological science from the University of Glasgow in 1974 and took up a graduate trainee position with the NHS. He worked his way up the organisation and, in 1994, became Chief Executive of the NHS in England, where he was the Secretary of State’s principal policy adviser for the NHS.

In 1998 he received a Knighthood for his services to the NHS. As Chief Executive he oversaw the setting up of bodies to drive improvement and consistency across the NHS and managed the organisation through a period of rapid change

From 2001-2009, Sir Alan presided over a period of enormous progress for the University and his legacy includes a strong pipeline of funded research, new programmes of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, a strong professoriate, a well motivated community of students, and excellent new facilities and research platforms.

As Chief Executive of HEFCE, he plays a key role in the strategic development of higher education across England and is be responsible for £7.5 billion used to support excellence in education, research and knowledge transfer in universities and colleges which provide higher education programmes.

For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277