New principal's plans for University of the West of Scotland

In his first media interview in the position, Mr Miller said he is "absolutely confident" he can lead the university to that point and ensure UWS has an impact on a "global level".

He said: "Firstly, we must make sure that in all the communities in which we are situated we are developing its wellbeing, economic, social, cultural educational wellbeing in all of these levels with the student at the heart of what it is that we do.

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"Secondly, at a national level we must not think about higher education as a sector that just moans every time it doesn't get enough money - we are contributing across all aspects of life across Scotland and the UK to deliver for the prosperity for the nation.

"And finally, at a global level we have to think about how we can deliver by helping our students be the ethical leaders we want them to be, then we will truly have an impact on many of the things that we are facing in such a difficult environment locally, nationally and internationally."

Mr Miller qualified as a clinical nurse in Edinburgh in 1986, training, as was standard at the time, in a health board affiliated college. 

He said: "I was an employee of the health board so not actually a student.

"When I completed registration it was obvious to me that there was more to this than what we had gone through."

He decided to continue his studies and attended the Dundee Institute of Technology, then the only institution in Scotland running post-registration degree studies.

One of few male nurses on his course, Mr Miller was promoted to charge nurse before moving into hospital management and continuing in education with lecturing and course and curriculum development.

He worked at St John's Hospital in Livingston as the deputy director of nursing, adding: "I was 29 when I moved into that role, and what a scary age that was. 

"Now I’ve got a son at 27 I think ‘Would I have left him in charge of a hospital?’"

He then studied for an MBA degree at Napier University before going on to read for a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. 

"If you just took that bit of the pathway I’ve never been a full time student," Mr Miller, who declined to comment on the current nursing strikes, said.

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"I've always been a student while in employment of some sort or another."

A role as Chief Executive at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons led to a position as Director of the Open University in Scotland and then to Glasgow Caledonian University as deputy Vice-Chancellor.

This juggling of priorities, he added, gives him insight into what the students at UWS face in completely their degree courses.

The university has a solid reputation for widening participation: a report last year from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) showed that UWS, for the seventh consecutive year, had recruited the highest proportion of SIMD 20 students of any Scottish university.

He added: "The relevance of that is I really relate to the students in UWS, in particular who are juggling many things – many things – in order to advance their higher education career, whether that’s families, whether that’s jobs, whether that’s coming to education at a later stage in life. 

"This was never a traditional, you go to school, you go to university and do a full time programme type of university and I understand that because I've gone from being a wet behind the ears teenaged nurse to being the first nurse in Scotland to head up a university." 

Mr Miller takes over tenure at the university at a time when the cost of living crisis is affecting students, university funding is under pressure and university staff are striking.

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Of the Scotland-wide pay strikes, he will only say that disruption to students will be minimised as far as possible, but he added that a "priority" is ensuring that funding is freed up to help students with increasing energy and living costs.

Last year £4 million was giving out by UWS in hardship funds and it is expected more money will be needed this year.

He added: "Life in general gets in the way of studying and it’s often life events, rather than studies, that mean students have to give up their study and that has a long lasting effect on them and we’re trying to make sure we minimise that happening so they get the greatest chance to make it through from Freshers Week to graduation celebrations.

"We will continue to make the best case to funding council and to the Scottish Government for the need for university funding and support for students in that widest sense as an investment, not as a cost.

"There is not a part of civic Scotland that is not touched in some way by universities so [financial support] should very much be seen as an investment rather than a cost."

One of his foremost concerns, he said, is to continue the university's widening access work and ensure that access to university is not only the preserve of school pupils but a life-long option for adults learners too.

He said that waiting until pupils are in the upper stages of education to introduce them to higher education is "too late".

Mr Miller, who was the first in his family to go to university, said: "I want to be talking about education as a single system rather than in chunks or bits that you go to nursery then primary and then secondary school and then you might go to college and then to university but let's think about this pathway as much as possible from the earliest possible moment.

"Widening access targets tend to focus on getting young, bright kids from deprived areas in to university and laudable though that is, widening participation is much, much broader than that. 

"How do we get those who are older students into university? How do we get people who are in employment but who want to upskill and reskill but who haven't had the chance to be within higher education, how do we make sure there are no barriers for anyone with a protected characteristic to come in to education?"

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It is also important, he added, not to "ram it down everybody's throat" that they have to go to university because, for some, that is not the best path. 

Emphasising the non-educational aspects of further study is also vital, says Mr Miller, who, outwith work and study, is a keen golfer, choral singer and gardener. 

Mr Miller said: "It's not just about trying to get a better job: it's about the people that you meet, the cultural things you get involved in, the widening of your horizons makes such an impression and can lead to opening so many other avenues to explore - it just exposes them to a whole other world."

The new principal is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, a member of the Institute of Directors, a member of the International Advisory Board for the Amity University Group in India, and was a founder member of the British Council’s Digital Advisory Board. 

He added: "The ripple effect of supporting people into education is amazing but it's something we know little about, actually, but fascinating to be able to think about that ripple effect. 

"You drop a pebble in the pond and see the ripple - think about what that is doing for that woman, her family, society and then beyond. 

"It's staggering really, and will be a continued focus during my time here."