Deputy Principal

About Moray College UHI

At Moray College UHI, we are both a University and a Community College. We’re an academic partner of the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) and an assigned college of the Highlands & Islands FE Region. That means we’re an integral part of the broad collective which provides a tertiary offer of Further and Higher Education across the Highlands & Islands and beyond.

Moray College UHI is a statutory corporation with charitable status. We are led and overseen by a Board of Management, which in turn is responsible to the Court of the University of the Highlands and Islands - the Regional Strategic Body for the Highlands and Islands, including Moray and Perthshire.

One of UHI’s key objectives is to attract and retain individuals to live in this region, through study and research opportunities across the UHI partnership. Another is for the University to be a catalyst for, and contribute to, the economic development and prosperity of this region. We work with local employers to upskill their workforce and to help them fill their job vacancies.

For us, as a fully tertiary institution in Moray, we can welcome individuals to start their study at any level and then support them to progress into work or up to post-graduate level (from SCQF 1 to SCQF 12), all the time remaining at the same College. We also welcome international students and we’re currently still an active participant in the ERASMUS programme.

We appointed our current Principal and Chief Executive, David Patterson, in February 2016. The expiry of the College’s previous Strategic Plan at that time provided an excellent opportunity for David to engage with staff, students, and external stakeholders in full and robust discussions on the mission, vision and values of the organisation. That current Strategic Plan has driven the development of the college over the past five years.

We’ve begun work now on our new Strategic Plan to cover the next five years. We’re looking back at the lessons learned from all the progress the college has made over that time, and from the great response our staff have made to support students during the pandemic period so far. We’re also looking forward to some exciting developments we have planned for our future. It would be great to have you with us, helping lead us on the next stage of our journey!

The Strategic Plan 2016-21 can be summarised as follows:

Mission Statement

The purpose of the college is:

“To transform lives and to be at the heart of transformation in Moray and in the wider region”

The college will achieve this mission through activities related to teaching, learning, research and the support of students.

Vision Statement

The college’s vision is that it will become ‘famous’ for:

  • The high quality of its teaching and learning
  • Its partnership work with stakeholders: including UHI, schools, employers and the Moray community (through its partnership planning structures)
  • The positive impact and outcomes of the work it does
  • Its values, for “doing the right things in the right way”

Values Statement

As part of the UHI partnership, the college chose to adopt the values of UHI’s Strategic Plan and Vision for 2015-20:

  • Collaboration
  • Openness
  • Respect
  • Excellence

The college has developed an expression of each of these values in order to be able to model linked behaviours that will generate the organisational culture that the college seeks to foster.

Further details can be found at:

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