David Skene

David’s academic background was initially in an undergraduate Economics Honours degree at Strathclyde Business School.  David later set out on an altogether different path for a successful career in the tourism industry, before taking a sabbatical which included travelling to vibrant rural localities with innovative social systems and small-scale agriculture at their core.

This led to a desire to return to education and explore rural sustainability and David made the move to the Isle of Lewis from Peterhead and undertook the Sustainable Rural Development MSc Programme.  The excellent online educational experience delivered by the team at UHI Outer Hebrides set him on a new trajectory as David joined the teaching team and is now programme leader for the Undergraduate BA Geography and BA Sustainable Development alongside various CPD programmes. David learns from inspiring colleagues every day, enjoying exploring new (and old!) and exciting ideas with excellent students.

During this time, David was the winner of a ballot to be the new tenant of a croft.  David now lives on a community-owned estate, where he keeps a flock of sheep and produces a range of fruit and veg in the PolyCrub, as well as having planted around 700 productive trees/bushes and keeping free range hens producing eggs for sale in the township. 

David’s particular areas of interest include politics, economics, small-scale agriculture, and sustainability, especially new economic approaches, for example ‘post growth’, community wealth building, and the links to other areas such as land reform, Citizens Income, and deliberative democracy.  As a lecturer part-time at UHI NWH, David enjoys nothing more than sharing these passions with students in an engaging and collaborative approach to teaching. 

When David isn’t working with the college, he is a retained firefighter in the community and is the finance director of a local charity and chair of a local area forum.  The charity is a social enterprise which is housed in an old school building and houses a community shop, petrol station, museum and archive, café and hostel which is all geared toward keeping a community asset open through the winter months.