A group of politics students from the University of Aberdeen will have the chance to meet a number of prominent politicians when they visit the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh this week.
The trip, which is the first of its kind for Aberdeen students, was organised by a third year Scottish Politics student who planned the trip for his classmates with the help of Dr Paul Cairney, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations.
The students travel to the capital tomorrow (Wednesday, May 11) where their first meeting on the day’s packed agenda will be with North East Scotland MSP Richard Baker. They will then meet with Lewis MacDonald, Aberdeen Central MSP, before they are given a guided tour of the new state-of-the-art building.
Following the tour, and if his busy schedule allows it, the students may get the opportunity to meet Jack McConnell and to pose some questions on a range of local and national issues. The student group will then experience the plenary debate, which takes place in the afternoon.
Dr Cairney said the students had demonstrated enormous enthusiasm for the trip. He said: “This trip will serve as a useful learning tool for the Scottish Politics students.
“It will give them a chance to relate their studies to the real life, day to day business of Scottish politics”
The Scottish Politics course covers a wide range of subjects, including “new politics”, the role of Scottish Parliament committees, intergovernmental relations and the extent of policy change since devolution.
Dr Cairney was appointed to a research fellowship in 2003 and a lectureship in 2004. His major research interests are in policymaking in Scotland (including studies of the Scottish Parliament, Sewel motions, and using primary legislation as an indicator of convergence and divergence). He was recently invited to give advice to the Procedures Committee on the use of Sewel Motions.