Vice-Principal (Global Engagement)
- Email Address
- alan.speight@abdn.ac.uk
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 273180
- School/Department
- Senior Vice Principals
- Personal Assistant
- Suzanne Fleming
Biography
Professor Alan Speight is Vice-Principal for Global Engagement and has strategic oversight of the University’s strategic alliances and international partnerships, and for the University’s global student recruitment strategy, across all levels of study and modes of delivery, including online. He has particular responsibility for the University’s tripartite strategic alliance with the Universities of Curtin and Calgary, and for the University’s transnational education activities, including through its partnerships in Qatar and China.
He has provided leadership for numerous successful international partnerships delivering student recruitment pathways, articulation routes, transnational education, including English language training, joint programmes, distance taught and distance learning programmes, and dual degrees. He has worked closely with regional agencies, national governments and their embassies and representatives in the Middle East, China, and across South-East Asia.
Alan was previously Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) at the University of Hull, having previously been Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Student Experience) at Swansea University. He is an Economics graduate of the University of Essex, and a postgraduate of Queen Mary University, London, where he completed both an MSc and a PhD in Economics, prior to taking up his first academic position as a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Aberdeen. He has held professorial positions in Economics and in Finance, and his research background is in empirical finance and financial economics, including the analysis of financial market volatility and the management of financial risk.
External Memberships
Alan’s external experience includes membership of numerous external sector bodies including as a Non-Executive Director and Board Member for the QAA, as a member of the QAA Degree Awarding Powers Advisory Committee, and the UCAS Advisory Council. He is a current member of the Universities Scotland International Committee, and the UUK International PVC Network.