MKU appoints a New Chancellor
Prof John J. Struthers, respected development economist, widely published scholar and don, is Mount Kenya University’s (MKU’s) new Chancellor. He succeeds Prof Victoria Wulsin, MKU’s inaugural Chancellor, whose glorious tenure has ended.
He will provide stewardship to the realisation of MKU’s vision and mission. This will unlock infinite possibilities for individuals and communities, thus helping transform lives.
In appointing Prof Struthers, the MKU Board of Directors considered his vast experience in academia that spans four decades in the United Kingdom, Africa Oceania, and the Middle East. The Board also looked at his leadership acumen that public agencies and think tanks have previously tapped, appointing him to various top administrative positions.
Presently, Prof Struthers is the Director of Centre for African Research on Enterprise and Economic Development (CAREED) which he helped co-found at the University of West of Scotland in November 2015.
CAREED is a unique research centre which specialises in a range of key economic issues across the continent of Africa with a strong focus on commodities and trade, logistics and global value chains, and entrepreneurship. In 2016, it was awarded the African Initiative Award by African Forum Scotland.
Biography
Prof Struthers (MA; Hons (Glasgow); MPhil (Glasgow); FHEA; FRSA) is an experienced academic and respected economist with close to 40 years’ working experience in various universities in the UK, Africa, as well as other countries.
Within Africa, he has lectured in Nigeria and Sierra Leone and he has carried out research on Ghana, Nigeria and Ethiopia.
He has published his research findings extensively in a range of economics journals, principally in the field of development economics.
Outside academia, he has held a number of key positions including public appointments. He has previously been director of a leading Scottish chamber of commerce. He has also been a Board member of Waterwatch Scotland, a water industry consumer body as well as an Academic Assessor for the UK Government’s Fast Stream Civil Selection Selection Board which recruits top economics graduates for economist positions in the UK civil service.
He was appointed as a Personal Professor at the University of West of Scotland (UWS – then the University of Paisley) in 1996.
Since 2009, he has participated in and chaired several Quality Assurance Reviews for the Higher Education Unit of the Quality Assurance Authority of Bahrain.
He is a current member of the Westminster Africa Business Group in London.
In 2015 he was appointed Honorary Consul for Ethiopia in Scotland.
He has been Dean of a Faculty of Business at UWS, Head of Department of Economics and Enterprise, and founding Head of the UWS Graduate School.
For the last 10 or more years he has been researching in the area of commodity price volatility in developing countries. In this context he has collaborated with a number of UN organisations such as FAO in Rome and UNCTAD in Geneva in the area of commodities research.
His publications (some-co-authored) have appeared in the following journals: Development and Change; Journal of Energy and Development; Journal of Economic Studies; Journal of International Development; Oxford Development Studies, Journal of Developing Areas, and Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, among others. He is Lead Editor for the Journal of Social Business. He has also authored/co-authored and contributed to a number of academic books. In 1986, for example, he co-authored (with H. Speight) the advanced textbook entitled: Money: Institutions, Theory and Policy.
His recent research has been funded by the British Academy. He has supervised 18 PhD students to completion, many of whom came from a variety of African countries and he has been external examiner for more than 30 doctorates at a number of UK universities. He is also a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Glasgow within the Adam Smith Business School. In 1993 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in London (FRSA) and in 2007 a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA, UK).
