Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is Dr Yekemi Otaru, chancellor of the University of the West of Scotland.
Presiding Officer and members of the Scottish Parliament, thank you for this opportunity to share a few reflections. I am Yekemi and I am chancellor of the University of the West of Scotland, or UWS for short. That is still a sentence that I sometimes have to repeat to myself, because it is a long way from where my family started. My grandfather did not believe in educating girls. I have 12 aunties, none of whom went to primary school—that was just not the world that they lived in. If my grandfather could see me now, with five university degrees including two master’s, running businesses, leading a local charity and now standing here as chancellor of a university, I think that he would be a bit shocked, but maybe just a little bit proud, too.
Coming to Scotland over 20 years ago brought me opportunities to learn, to grow and to lead in a welcoming country. Now, I have children of my own being educated here in Scotland. That is something that I never take for granted. It is about more than books and exams; it is about building confidence and shaping values. At UWS, we take that very seriously. Sixty seven per cent of our undergraduate students are 21 or older when they start. Many are returning to education after raising children, changing careers or just finally getting the chance that they missed earlier in life, and roughly 45 per cent are the first in their family to go to university.
I know what education has done for me. It has opened doors that I did not even know existed. It has helped me to start businesses, to build a career and, now, to give back through charity work. In my role as chancellor, I hope that I can be a role model for students who wonder whether people like them can lead too. Representation matters. Whether people see someone from their ethnic background, their gender or their community in a leadership role, it tells them, and especially young people, “You belong too.”
As the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie once said, “We should all be feminists”. I would add that we should all be champions of education, because when we educate and empower people, especially women, we do not just improve lives—we transform communities.
Today, I reflect with gratitude—gratitude for the teachers, the public servants, the institutions and the policies that make education possible, not just for people like me, but for every child with a dream bigger than their circumstances. Thank you.
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