Prince Philip as Chancellor of Edinburgh
University installs that popular actor
James Robertson Justice as the
university's new rector Edinburgh
students have their own irreverent way
with perforated paper tomatoes and
what-have-you
are greeting the rector they themselves
elected in years gone by the
installation of the new rector at the
University of Edinburgh made news UK
wide and it was a famously light-hearted
occasion times change and nowadays
things are a little less boisterous but
the position of rector remains as does
its significance
the rector's a position that's unique to
just a handful of the Scottish
universities it's the formal role is to
chair the university's governing body
the court but there's also an informal
role which is about working closely with
students and the staff to make sure that
their concerns are at the heart at the
heart of the top decision-making
structures in the university and that's
one of the things that I focused on the
history of the role and the ceremony
that goes with it still fires the
imagination of students today here
they're seen chairing the journalist and
broadcaster Iain MacWhirter round old
college quad when he became rector in
2009 for him being voted into the role
was a source of immense pride can't
think of any institution in Scotland I
would rather be associated in or
represent a certain extent than
Edinburgh University which really is one
of Scotland's great institutions and
great contributions to the world and to
civilization and that may sound a little
overblown but not if you look at the
incredible breadth of the intellectual
work that's going on in Edinburgh
University and all sorts of diverse
areas from climate change to the arts
and the merger with Edinburgh College
college of art which took place while I
was while I was chairing the court again
a tremendous achievement for the
university that was, was a big
big deal merging with a another
University and I thought it was handled
extremely efficiently I think it's a
testament to the extent to which the
management of Edinburgh University is
extremely robust it's well led and it
knows what it's about it knows what it's
there for my advice to people who are
coming along is concentrate your efforts
make sure you focus don't get too
distracted don't get too lost in
individual issues concentrate in the big
picture and make sure that well your
rectorship does achieve something
despite the pomp and pageantry
associated with the position of rector
and the many celebrity names linked to
it Peter McCall says it continues to
play an important role in the life of
the university it brings
level of externality to the governance
that you might not otherwise get people
who become rector's wouldn't tend to be
in that position otherwise so it gives a
person in the university court who
students often find more approachable
than others it gives a degree of check
on on the university's management and
that's that's really important so having
somebody in the chair of the governing
body making sure that all voices around
the table are heard but not only doing
that also go around and speaking to
people so I spend a lot of time speaking
to students spend a lot of time going to
student events so that I know what the
students think and what the concerns of
the student body are and having that at
the top table and the university is I
think a really important thing and
that's something you would lose with our
rector and it's something that I think
the universities that have rector's
really really benefit from and anyone
aspiring to be rector in the future
can't look at the list of former actors
and fail to be impressed not only does
it include celebrity names such as James
Robertson Justice Alastair Sim and
Magnus Magnusson there's also a number
of former prime ministers including
Stanley Baldwin Lloyd George Gordon
Brown and perhaps most famously Sir
Winston Churchill mr. Winston
Churchill
and quite an exciting ride through the
streets of Edinburgh on his way to
deliver his rectorial address on his
arrival at the University Hall he was
chaired by the students and so robed now
as a doctor of literature of Edinburgh
the famous hat replaced by more somber
headgear he goes to deliver his address
on the decline of parliamentary
government