Principal's Column

The new year, 2004 and the second semester are off to a flying start. In January, 37 'inaugural' professors shared their ideas, insights and ambitions with a wide audience at our first Discovery Days, underlining the teaching and research strengths of the University and highlighting new areas of opportunity for academic investment. The Saturday evening lecture series - the longest running lecture series in Scotland - also celebrates its 80th anniversary in style with a strong and varied programme.

The new Centre for Health Informatics has opened its doors and almost simultaneously comes confirmation of an award worth over £1m from the Wellcome Trust, the NHS and SHEFC RDG, for a collaborative project on the genetic epidemiology of type II diabetes, led by Andrew Morris. In the arts, following the success of Steve Partridge who secured £1/2m - one of the biggest research grants awarded by the recently formed AHRB - historian Mark Cornwall has secured an award of £160k to study the aftermath of World War 1 in Eastern Europe. Building and engineering work is also advancing on the redevelopment of student centre at DUSA, the creation of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research and the Queen Mother building, while the new Clinical Research Centre at Ninewells was given the green light at the December Court meeting.

The new year also brings new challenges and we await the outcome of the Scottish Higher Education Review before we can finally judge the impact of changes in the funding regime in England. This is a watershed moment for the Scottish Parliament - having stretched public spending to the limits, it has to face up to issues of economic development and population decline. The continued success of our universities will be vital in mapping the way forward and there is plenty of international evidence to show that strategic investments in learning and teaching and in research will pay dividends in the future. In the higher education sector itself, the current stand off between UCEA and the AUT needs to be resolved in a way that ensures employment practices that are modern, flexible and fair.

In Dundee our key goals will be excellence in learning and teaching and research and we will continue to maximise income from all sources to support University-wide capital investment and financial stability in each faculty. The new approach to quality assurance in higher education in Scotland takes effect this year and we will need to focus hard on our internal programme of subject reviews, the effective involvement of students in quality assurance and preparations for the institutional review which takes place in the late autumn. I look forward with enthusiasm to the year ahead.

Alan Langlands
February 2004