In October 1924, Ian matriculated in Aberdeen University. He established himself as something of a character within the university and was an active participant in the 'Society and the Debater'. Ian was a regular contributor to the university magazine Alma Mater. John R. Allan, editor of Alma Mater at that time and life long friend, later graphically described him "He was not big but he was physically strong and even more so tough; and, if the muscles ever tired, the will carried on. He was fair-haired and had a curiously innocent face, made all the more so by spectacles, for he was short-sighted, but the eyes behind the spectacles were hardly innocent: they were very seeing and very penetrating, or the mind was that looked through them. He used to walk a little round-shouldered, with his head thrust forward, and if he happened to be in high spirits or in a tearing humour against some foolishness, he was a force of nature no one could stand against. He had rare wit and a power of language that was always avid, completely expressive and seldom polite; and he was in himself the spirit of the north. He was contra-suggestive to the highest degree. Whatever statement was made he would contradict it and bring such a wealth of argument and scurrility against it, in ever more outrageous heights of fantasy, that he ended up by denouncing himself. No one was ever more truly of the north or loved it better or damned it more justly. For although he could make a deal of noise and was never one of those who moved softly about their secret occasions, he had a great power of sweetness and gentleness in him. He could pass quickly from being a destructive force of nature among the pretentious to standing modestly, a little shyly, on one foot with people that he liked. He made for himself a sort of affection from which time and mischance can never take anything away."
It was during Ian's time at Aberdeen that his father retired and returned to a newly built house in Newtonmore. A place where Ian returned for his vacations and found work as a ghillie. He graduated from Aberdeen University with a 1st Class Honours in English in 1928 where he won all the university prizes as the first student of a very good year. Professor A.A. Jack, head of department, reported "Mr Macpherson owed his position to quite solid qualities. He always gave the impression of capacity and was equally at home in all the different parts of the curriculum. He has undoubted powers of poetical sensibility, but where hard thinking and accurate knowledge were desired he supplied them. He never seemed to be making a special effort, but to be doing what he did do just because he was able to do it. When he wrote well, as he constantly did, it was because he felt well. There was nothing forced or artistically laboured about his work. On the contrary there was something unusually genuine about its whole character and I look forward to his future career with unusual interest". Professor Jack went further and took Ian on for a two-year post as his assistant at Aberdeen University.