Portrush man and CEO of City of Glasgow College Dr Paul Little honoured in King’s Birthday Honours

Dr Little previously led Limavady, Armagh and Southern Regional colleges as well as Central College in Scotland.

He said: “I was deeply honoured and humbled to be recognised with a CBE in the King’s first Birthday Honours in his Coronation year. In over 35 years of public service to Further and Higher Education, I have learnt from and worked with many incredibly talented and hard-working colleagues both here at City, its legacy College, and in three Colleges in Northern Ireland.

“Together, we have collectively built many careers and enhanced many lives. In that sense, therefore, although this is bestowed as a personal, senior honour, I very much see it as a shared recognition of the colleges I have worked at and the colleagues with whom I have worked alongside.”

In an educational career spanning over 35 years, beginning as a teacher, before becoming a lecturer, senior lecturer, and Head of School, Paul Little subsequently secured appointment to his first college Principal post in 2000. Since then, he has led five separate colleges and his contributions to the people and the communities he serves have been transformative.

Paul spent seven years as Principal of Limavady and then Armagh Colleges, turning round what were under-performing institutions such that they became amongst the highest performing within Northern Ireland’s further and higher education sector: the colleges reached, respectively, third and first place in the NI college rankings, while Armagh secured the prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Award, becoming the first college in Northern Ireland to do so.

That success led to Paul being asked to lead the merger of three separate colleges into what became Southern Regional College. Here, he excelled in a role requiring both excellent leadership, skilfully and sensitively discharged in an environment beset by sectarian division, geographical isolation, urban and rural inequality – and not least the background of two previously unresolved merger attempts.

After successfully creating the second largest educational institution in Northern Ireland, Paul arrived in Glasgow in 2007 to become Principal and Chief Executive of the then Central College. Here, he drew on the skills he developed in Northern Ireland to lead the complex - and sometimes contentious - strategic and operational planning of another merger, this time creating Scotland’s largest college in 2010.

This was a merger of unprecedented scale and Paul’s inspirational leadership, drive and commitment, and his unceasing focus on the value the new college would deliver to Glasgow’s learners and employers, saw the merge delivered on time and to budget.

Principal Little also has a lifelong commitment to the maritime sector. Alongside service as a volunteer search and rescue officer with HM Coastguard for some 30 years (he was awarded HM Coastguard Search and Rescue Medals in both 2000 and 2004), last year he was appointed as both an Honorary Captain in the Royal Navy and the Chair of the UK Government’s Shipbuilding Skills Task Force.

Principal Little becomes the second family member to be awarded an Honour after his brother, Mark Little, received an MBE and was recognised for his distinguished services to Policing in Northern Ireland in the Queen’s Birthdays 2020 Honours List.