NEWS

Vice-Chancellor Knighted in New Year Honours

Accolades for Bob Burgess and for Maureen Raine, Jenny Foxon and Alice Sluckin

Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Burgess has been Knighted in the 2010 New Year Honours List.

He is the only Vice-Chancellor in the UK to receive the honour in the List and gains the award for services to local and national higher education. Under his leadership, the University has taken its place within the top 20 in the UK and, in 2008/09 was ranked as the University of the Year by the Times Higher Education magazine.

Professor Burgess is honoured alongside colleagues at the University of Leicester: Jenny Foxon, senior technician in the Department of Genetics receives an MBE for her services to science. Maureen Raine, office manager at the English Language Teaching Unit, is also honoured with an MBE for services to higher education.

Mrs Alice Sluckin, Chair, Selective Mutism Information and Research Association was honoured with an OBE for services to Children and Families. Alice Sluckin is a Fellow in the University’s Schools of Education and Psychology. The Annual Sluckin Lecture was inaugurated in 1991 in honour of the Division of Psychology’s highly respected and much loved former colleague, Wladek Sluckin, who was Professor of Psychology at University of Leicester from 1965 to 1984. Professor Sluckin’s principal research interest was animal behaviour.

John Holman, who leads the National Science Learning Centre, is Knighted. The Science Learning Centre’s East Midlands hub is based at the University of Leicester.

Professor Burgess said: “I’m very honoured and delighted to receive this award. I’ve been very fortunate to have many great opportunities throughout my career in higher education. However, I have always been supported by many marvellous colleagues who have contributed to the numerous developments in which I have been involved, which has all made my work enjoyable and exciting. My greatest pleasure associated with the award is that I have been able to make some changes and make some difference to higher education and the student experience.”

Jenny said: “I was both surprised and honoured to receive this award. I see this as recognition of the contribution made by support staff to the University’s success.”

Maureen said: "This has been a totally unexpected but thrilling honour. I believe it represents not just great working relationships within the ELTU, but co-operation and teamwork by so many support staff in offices and departments across the University."

Commenting in the Times Higher Aaron Porter, Vice-President of the NUS, said: “The honour is very well deserved for Professor Sir Bob Burgess who has done a tremendous job as Vice-Chancellor at the University of Leicester, winning THE University of the Year last year and made impressive progress in the quality and reputation of the institution over the last decade, whilst retaining a central focus on the student experience. Also, he has made an incredible contribution to the sector more broadly as Chair of UCAS, the Higher Education Academy and his work on Measuring & Recording Student Achievement. Having been a student at the University of Leicester, a SU Sabbatical Officer and now working with him at the NUS - I'm also personally very pleased for him, as he has always been a pleasure to work with.”

The University of Leicester was the THE University of the Year 2008-9. In awarding the title the judges cited Leicester’s ability to “evidence commitment to high quality, a belief in the synergy of teaching and research and a conviction that higher education is a power for good”. Leicester was, said the judges, "elite without being elitist". Amongst mainstream universities, students at Leicester are among the most satisfied in England. In 2009 91% of full-time students were satisfied with their programme. The Sunday Times described Leicester as "top... amongst mainstream multi-faculty universities for student satisfaction.

Of the Times’ top 20 universities only one, Leicester, meets its government benchmarks for inclusivity amongst state school pupils and lower socio-economic groups.

The 2010 New Year Honours List recognises outstanding achievement and service across the whole of the United Kingdom.

In total 979 people have been recommended to The Queen for an award:

842 candidates have been selected at MBE and OBE level,

615 at MBE and 227 at OBE

73 per cent of the recipients are local heroes, who’ve undertaken outstanding work in their communities

there are 441 successful women candidates in the list; 45 per cent of the total

six per cent of the successful candidates come from ethnic minority communities

You can read stories about the Honours here:

The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/31/education-new-year-honours

Times Higher Education:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=409805&c=1