Professor Chik Collins was previously Rector (Vice Chancellor) of the University of the Faroe Islands (01.09.2019-31.12.2022), and is now an Affiliated Professor in the University's Faculty of History and Social Sciences.

Chik is a social scientist whose principal current affiliation is as Director of the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, and, through that, he is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow.

Chik was based at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), and its predecessor institution, the University of Paisley, between 1993 and 2019. He was awarded his PhD in 1997 at the latter institution, and later progressed to become Professor of Applied Social Science and a senior manager within the University. Chik also retains a position at the University of the West of Scotland as Visiting Professor of Applied Social Science.

During his time at the University of the West of Scotland, Professor Collins co-founded and led, on behalf of UWS, the innovative UWS-Oxfam Partnership - 'for a more equitable and sustainable Scotland'.

Professor Collins has published extensively on language and social change, community development and urban policy. Over the past decade or so, he has worked as part of a research team focused on accounting for the problematic excess mortality in Scotland and in particular Glasgow. A fuller sense of his research interests and collaborations can be obtained from reviewing the research outputs and activities recorded on this profile - click on the buttons above.

Professor Collins’ Google scholar profile is here.

Key publications in recent years include:

• Gerry McCartney, Elinor Dickie, Oliver Escobar and Chik Collins, “Using inequalities in power to operationalise fundamental causes theory and focus action to reduce health inequalities”, 50 (1), pp40-58, 2021.
• Hartwig Pautz, Sally A. Wright and Chik Collins, “Job Quality, Fair Work and Decent Work in Scotland: An Agenda-Setting Analysis”, Journal of Social Policy (published online 13^th Nov 2019), 50 (1), pp40-58, 2021.
• Chik Collins and Ian Levitt, “The Policy Discourses that Shaped the ‘Transformation’ of Glasgow in the Later 20th Century: ‘Overspill’, ‘Redeployment’ and the ‘Culture of Enterprise’”, in Keith Kintrea and Rebecca Madgin (eds.), Transforming Glasgow: Beyond the Post-Industrial City, Bristol: Policy Press, pp.21-38, 2020.
• David Walsh, Gerry McCartney, Chik Collins, Martin Taulbut and G. David Batty, “History, politics and vulnerability: Explaining excess mortality in Scotland and Glasgow”, Public Health, 151, pp.1-12, 2017.
• Mhairi MacKenzie, Chik Collins, John Connolly, Mick Doyle and Gerry McCartney, “Working-class discourses of politics, policy and health: ‘I don't smoke and don't drink. The only thing wrong with me is my health’", Policy and Politics, 45 (2), pp.231-250, 2017.
• Chik Collins and Ian Levitt, “The ‘modernisation’ of Scotland and its impact on Glasgow, 1955-1979: ‘unwanted side effects’ and vulnerabilities” Scottish Affairs, 25 (3), pp.294-316, 2016.
• Alex Scott-Samuel, Clare Bambra, Chik Collins, David J Hunter, Gerry McCartney and Kat Smith, “The impact of Thatcherism on health and well-being in Britain”, International Journal of Health Services 44 (1),  pp.53-71,2014.
• Gerry McCartney, Chik Collins and Mhairi Mackenzie, “What (or Who) Causes Health Inequalities? Theories, Evidence and Implications”, Health Policy, 113, pp.221-227, 2013. 

For fuller information on publications, please look under Research Output (and other tabs) above.

Over a long academic career, Professor Collins taught at all levels of undergraduate and postgraduate study in social science, in courses including: Historical Studies; Concepts and Theories of Politics; Democracy in the UK?; The Politics of Social Policy; Who Governs?; Sociology and Social Inequality; Methodology and Methods; Green Politics; Urban Politics and Policy: Urban Regneration; Explorations in Ideology and Language; Critical Discourse Analysis; Ideology and Values in Social Policy, and Demoracy and Social Justice.

Professor Collins is a member of the UK Higher Education Academy.