Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Having completed his undergraduate degree (in Economics and Public Policy) at Leeds Polytechnic in 1989, and his PhD (in Public Policy) at the University of Strathclyde in 1992, Paul Carmichael joined the University of Ulster in 1992. After promotion to Senior Lecturer in 1997, and to Reader in 2002, he was appointed Professor of Public Policy/Government in 2004. The following year, he became Head of the School of Policy Studies where he continued until he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, in 2010.

From 2017-22, Professor Paul Carmichael served as the Associate Dean (Global Engagement) in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Ulster University in Northern Ireland. He has since returned to his former department, the School of Applied Social and Policy Studies. His research and teaching interests focuses 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.

Professor Carmichael was Honorary Secretary of the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom from 2000 to 2016, and was Vice Chair of the Public Administration Committee of the Joint University Council (2004 to 2009). He was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Utah, USA, in 1999 and has been Visiting Lecturer at the Centre for British Studies in Humboldt-Universität Berlin, since 1999, being appointed a Fellow of the Centre in 2008. At the GBZ, he is responsible for the Politics module on the Masters in British Studies.

Professor Carmichael has been an external examiner at four universities in the UK and Ireland (De Montfort, Northumbria, Limerick and Glasgow Caledonian) as well as a PhD external examiner (Exeter and Edinburgh). He was appointed to serve on the QAA (HE) Benchmarking Panel for Politics and International Relations in 1999 and has served as external assessor on several course validation panels. Additionally, Professor Carmichael has undertaken consultancy with a variety of organisations in Northern Ireland. In 2007, he was elected as Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He became a Fellow of the Joint University Council of the United Kingdom in 2021.