Originally published on Febrary 17th, 2009

Scottish journalist Iain Macwhirter has been elected as the University of Edinburgh’s 50th Rector.

After a hard-fought campaign against Labour MSP George Foulkes, Macwhirter secured a comfortable victory with 4,822 of 7,004 votes cast, an overwhelming victory with 69 per cent of the vote.

After an installation ceremony next month, Macwhirter will take over as the chair of the University’s court, the institution’s chief governing body. He will succeed Green former MSP Mark Ballard in the role, which involves representing student and staff interests to the University’s authorities and elsewhere.

The results were announced in Old College after polls closed on Thursday. Macwhirter said: “I am delighted that the students and staff of Edinburgh University have chosen me to be their Rector.

"I am extremely excited to have this opportunity to take an active involvement in the University and look to ensure the interests of both staff and students are maintained. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank George Foulkes for running an excellent campaign and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.”
5,778 students and 1,226 staff voted in the election, with 28 postal votes also counted. Speaking after the result was announced, Foulkes said: “I’d like to send my very sincere congratulations to Iain on winning this election, I’m absolutely sure that he’ll make a splendid rector… After George Galloway pulled out he said that Edinburgh would end up with a second-rate Rector, that is certainly not the case.”

Speaking to the Student, Macwhirter said taking action on student support would be his first objective as Rector: “I think the mandate is very clear and student support is the top priority. A lot of students are getting very heavily into debt and I’m going to be discussing with the other Rectors of the Scottish universities how we can move to a £7,000 minimum income guarantee for students and we’ll be pressing the government to honor its responsibilities to students as well as universities.”

He continued: “The main challenge is going to be graduate unemployment. In July 600,000 school leavers will enter the job market and we know that only half of them are going to get work.
Graduate employment is down 30 per cent, so students are going to be leaving university with big debts and they’re not going to be walking into jobs.

“Also, in that regard, there’s a real danger that graduate recruitment concentrates narrowly on elite universities south of the border and we have to ensure that Edinburgh doesn’t fall off the graduate employment map.”

Macwhirter also lent his support to the students occupying George Square Lecture Theatre, promising to push for a review of the University’s involvement with arms manufacturers BAE Systems and QinetiQ, with one of the protestors main demands being divestment from these firms.

“Our top priority is to examine the University’s links with the arms industry and to ensure that not only does the University pursue an ethical investment policy but that it’s not engaged in research that could be used for repressive purposes in the Middle East,” Macwhirter said.

Mark Ballard beat journalist Magnus Linklater and Tory MP Boris Johnston to the post in a high-profile contest in 2006. Notable past rectors include Prime Ministers Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George, Stanley Baldwin and Gordon Brown, then a student at the University.
The election marks 150 years since William Gladstone first took up the post as Rector at the University.