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Sir Muir Russell KCB DL FRSE is Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, in Scotland.

He was born in Glasgow in 1949 and was educated at the High School of Glasgow and the University of Glasgow, where he took a first class honours degree in Natural Philosophy.

He was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2000 and holds honorary degrees from the University of Strathclyde and the University of Glasgow.

Career

Muir Russell took office as Principal on 1 October 2003. Previously, he was Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Executive since its establishment in 1999. He joined The Scottish Office in 1970 and became Secretary of the Scottish Development Agency on its establishment in Glasgow in 1975. He was Principal Private Secretary to The Secretary of State for Scotland from 1981 to 1983 and was seconded to the Cabinet Office in 1990. He was appointed Permanent Secretary at The Scottish Office in May 1998, following open competition.

He was widely blamed for the Scottish Parliament fiasco.

He continued to attract controversy while Principal of Glasgow University. In his first year he made more than 250 people redundant claiming that this was necessary to secure the University's future. Only later it emerged that while arguing that cuts were necessary across the board he had in fact accepted a 15 per cent pay rise for himself, some five times the rate of inflation making his salary in excess of £200,000 pa, plus a free house and over £15,000 pa being paid into a pension. To compound the University's embarrassment this came into the public domain at the same time as University management were trying to obtain more money from the Scottish Funding Council to keep the University's Crichton Campus in Dumfries open. On January 16 2007 he announced the planned closure of the University of Glasgow's part of the Crichton Campus as a result of his failure to secure additional funding. The University of Glasgow was the sole provider of arts, humanities, environmental studies and community learning degree level courses in the region.

Russell's leadership was further called into question when it emerged that the University was under investigation by its main backer the Scottish Funding Council for imposing so called "gagging orders" upon staff [1]. The practice, widely seen as incompatible with academic freedom, was suspected of possibly being an attempt to silence would be whistle-blowers. This was a particular embarrassment as current University rector, Mordechai Vanunu, is one of the world's most famous whistle-blowers.

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 He was widely blamed for the [[Scottish Parliament fiasco]].
-He continued to attract controversy while Principal of Glasgow University. In his first year he made more than 250 people redundant claiming that this was necessary to secure the University's future. Only later it emerged that while arguing that cuts were necessary across the board he had in fact accepted a 15 per cent pay rise for himself, some five times the rate of inflation making his salary in excess of £200,000 pa, plus a free house and over £15,000 pa being paid into a pension. To compound the University's embarrassment this came into the public domain at the same time as University management were trying to obtain more money from the Scottish Funding Council to keep the University's Crichton Campus in Dumfries open.
+He continued to attract controversy while Principal of Glasgow University. In his first year he made more than 250 people redundant claiming that this was necessary to secure the University's future. Only later it emerged that while arguing that cuts were necessary across the board he had in fact accepted a 15 per cent pay rise for himself, some five times the rate of inflation making his salary in excess of £200,000 pa, plus a free house and over £15,000 pa being paid into a pension. To compound the University's embarrassment this came into the public domain at the same time as University management were trying to obtain more money from the Scottish Funding Council to keep the University's Crichton Campus in [[Dumfries]] open. On January 16 2007 he announced the planned closure of the [[University of Glasgow]]'s part of the Crichton Campus as a result of his failure to secure additional funding. The [[University of Glasgow]] was the sole provider of [[arts]], [[humanities]], [[environmental studies]] and community learning degree level courses in the region.
-Russell's leadership was again called into question when it emerged that the University was under investigation by its main backer the Scottish Funding Council for imposing so called "gagging orders" upon staff [http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1201128.0.university_defends_gagging_clause_in_redundancy_deals.php]. The practice, widely seen as incompatible with academic freedom, was suspected of possibly being an attempt to silence would be whistle-blowers. This was a particular embarrassment as current University rector, [[Mordechai Vanunu]], is one of the world's most famous whistle-blowers.
+Russell's leadership was further called into question when it emerged that the University was under investigation by its main backer the Scottish Funding Council for imposing so called "gagging orders" upon staff [http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1201128.0.university_defends_gagging_clause_in_redundancy_deals.php]. The practice, widely seen as incompatible with academic freedom, was suspected of possibly being an attempt to silence would be whistle-blowers. This was a particular embarrassment as current University rector, [[Mordechai Vanunu]], is one of the world's most famous whistle-blowers.
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