Stewart Sutherland
Stewart Ross Sutherland, Baron Sutherland of Houndwood, KT, FRSE, FBA (born 25 February 1941) is a Scottish academic and public servant. He was the Principal of Edinburgh University between 1994 and 2002
According to a special minute of the Senate of Edinburgh University detailing his career:
- Stewart Sutherland was born in Aberdeenshire in 1941. He was educated at Woodside School and then at Robert Gordon’s College, Aberdeen. He graduated MA from the University of Aberdeen with First Class Honours in Mental Philosophy, and went on to study at Corpus Christi College Cambridge where he held the Manners Honorary Scholarship, taking a BA with First Class Honours in the Philosophy of Religion. His first academic appointment was as Assistant Lecturer in Philosophy at the University College of North Wales (Bangor) in 1965. He moved to a lecturership in Philosophy at the University of Stirling in 1968, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1972 and Reader in 1976. In 1977 he was appointed to the Chair of the History and Philosophy of Religion at King’s College London; he became Vice-Principal of the College in 1981 and was appointed Principal in 1985. In 1990, he was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of London and from 1992 held that post concurrently with that of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools in England until his move to Edinburgh in 1994 when he was appointed Principal and Vice-Chancellor and awarded a Personal Chair in the Philosophy of Religion.[1]
- He served on the Board of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, on the Hong Kong University Grants Committee (for whom he conducted a major review of higher education shortly before his retiral), as Vice-Convener of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals (now Universities UK) and as Convener of the Committee of Scottish Higher Education Principals/Universities Scotland. Shortly after taking up his post at Edinburgh, Stewart Sutherland was appointed by the then Secretary of State to chair the Committee on Criminal Appeals and Miscarriages of Justice Procedures. Its recommendations formed the basis of the 1995 legislation that introduced the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission. In 1997, the Prime Minister appointed him as chair of the Royal Commission into the Care of the Elderly. Radical change was proposed, which Stewart Sutherland continued to champion well after the Royal Commission’s report had been submitted. Much to his pleasure, the newly devolved Scottish Executive implemented the core proposals, though the Westminster government has not yet had the same breadth of vision. Stewart Sutherland also served for several years on the Council for Science and Technology and the board of Edinburgh and Lothians Enterprise Limited: most recently [2002], was appointed President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.[2]
In 1992, he was elected to the British Academy, and in 1995 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.[3]
Following his involvement in the establishment of the Age Concern Institute of Gerontology at King's College London, he was invited by the incoming Blair government in 1997 to chair a Royal Commission on Long-Term Care of Older People.
Sutherland is a Commissioner at the Office of Surveillance Commissioners.
Contents
Profile
Sutherland was made a Knight Bachelor in 1995. In 2001, he was created a life peer as Baron Sutherland of Houndwood, of Houndwood in the Scottish Borders, and was the following year elected to the presidency of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
He was made a Knight of the Thistle in 2002, is the recipient of a number of honorary degrees, and continues to serve with various institutions. In 2005 he became a member of the editorial board of the Encyclopædia Britannica. He is now President of the Saltire Society and Honorary President of Alzheimer Scotland/Action on Dementia.[4]
Affiliations
- David Hume Institute, Honorary President[5]
Publications
- Atheism and the Rejection of God: Contemporary Philosophy and 'The Brothers Karamazov' (1977)
- Faith and Ambiguity (1984),
- Wilde Lectures at Oxford University – published as God, Jesus and Belief: The Legacy of Theism (1984) –
- The Philosophical Frontiers of Christian Theology: Essays Presented to D. M. MacKinnon (Ed. with Brian Hebblethwaite), (1982)
- Religion, Reason and the Self (Ed. with T A Roberts), (1989).
- World Religions (ed) (1988)
- The Study of Religion: Traditional and New Religions (Ed. with Peter Clarke), (1991)[6]
Notes
- ↑ CC 06 AA 01 The University of Edinburgh Senatus 12 February 2003, Special Minute: Lord Sutherland of Houndwood KT, FBA, FRSE, accessed 24 September 2008
- ↑ CC 06 AA 01 The University of Edinburgh Senatus 12 February 2003, Special Minute: Lord Sutherland of Houndwood KT, FBA, FRSE, accessed 24 September 2008
- ↑ CC 06 AA 01 The University of Edinburgh Senatus 12 February 2003, Special Minute: Lord Sutherland of Houndwood KT, FBA, FRSE, accessed 24 September 2008
- ↑ CC 06 AA 01 The University of Edinburgh Senatus 12 February 2003, Special Minute: Lord Sutherland of Houndwood KT, FBA, FRSE, accessed 24 September 2008
- ↑ http://www.davidhumeinstitute.com/DHI%20Website/Reports/Reports.htm, accessed 24 September 2008
- ↑ CC 06 AA 01 The University of Edinburgh Senatus 12 February 2003, Special Minute: Lord Sutherland of Houndwood KT, FBA, FRSE, accessed 24 September 2008
