Professor Paul Carmichael

Overview

Professor Paul Carmichael joined the University of Ulster in 1992 as a Lecturer in Public Administration, becoming a Senior Lecturer in 1997, Reader in 2002 and Professor of Public Policy & Government in 2004.

Professor Carmichael obtained an honours degree in Economics and Public Policy in 1989 from Leeds Polytechnic. He was awarded a PhD in Public Policy in 1992 from the University of Strathclyde and a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education in 1995 from Ulster University.

Paul has been the Head of the School of Criminology, Politics and Social Policy from 2005-2010, Dean of the former Faculty of Social Sciences from 2010-2017, and Associate Dean (Global Engagement) in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences from 2017-2022, since when he has returned to his old department, the School of Applied Social and Policy Studies.

From 2000-16, he was Honorary Secretary of the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom and Vice Chair of the Public Administration Committee of the Joint University Council (2004-09). He has been a Visiting Fellow in the Centre for British Studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin since 2000.

In 2007, Professor Carmichael was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He was conferred as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2016.

In 2021, he was elected Fellow of the Joint University Council of the UK. Professor Carmichael’s teaching and research interests focus inter alia on local government, devolution and intergovernmental relations, and the civil service in Northern Ireland and more generally across the United Kingdom, as well as in comparative perspective, on which he has published regularly.

Originally a native of Kingston upon Hull in England, Paul has lived in Northern Ireland since 1992.