Peter West is Chief Operating Officer of Strathclyde University responsible for Corporate Services, Student Experience and Enhancement Services, Marketing and Development Services, Information Services and Research and Knowledge Exchange Services, divisions of Professional Services. Peter was born in Edinburgh and is a graduate in Modern History from the University of St Andrews, where he was President of the Union. His career to date has taken him to Edinburgh University (1972-77), Leeds University (1977-83) and, since then, Strathclyde.

He was President of IMHE, the Higher Education Management Programme of OECD, from 1998-2002, the first British University Secretary to hold that position. He has been involved in Higher Education management training in many parts of the world and is currently a Director of ESMU, the European Centre for Strategic Management of Universities. His publications on HE management have appeared in many journals including the Higher Education Quarterly and the OECD’s ‘Higher Education Management Policy’.

Since 1999, he has been Convener of the Malawi Millennium Project, co-ordinating the efforts of the University of Strathclyde and Bell College to support Malawi in general and the University of Malawi in particular. In April 2004, the Scotland/Malawi Partnership was launched at the City Chambers, Glasgow. He chairs the Partnership which has the strong support of the Scottish Government and the Lord Provosts of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

He has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Universities of Rostov-on-Don, Russia (1996) and Malawi (2002) and a Fellowship of Bell College (2004). He is also a Deputy Lieutenant of the City of Glasgow (2004).  He was awarded the OBE for services to Higher Education in Scotland and Malawi in the Queen’s Birthday Honours (2006).