Honorary fellowships were conferred onto the following people in the November graduation ceremonies of 2007.

Mr Edwin Booth CBE DL

In recognition of his outstanding and lifelong contribution to business in the North West and for his outstanding commitment to supporting local & regional suppliers in the food industry (awarded November 2007).

Edwin Booth is the Chairman & CEO of E H Booth & Co Ltd the proprietors of Booths Food Stores in the North of England.

He represents the fifth generation of the family that has operated Booths since 1847. Edwin entered the business immediately after school and quickly discovered an enthusiasm for retailing. The procurement of wine became his speciality for many years, enabling Booths to gain national recognition for this important area of the business. Subsequently he developed a successful marketing function prior to becoming Executive Chairman in 1997. While promoting the business’s reputation for excellent service and goods he worked to create an organisation with strong sustainability credentials and a focus on locally sourced food and drink. Edwin became an HRH the Prince Of Wales Business Ambassador for the North West in 2005 and was finalist for the Ernst & Young - Master Entrepreneur of the Year (North) award. He has also been awarded the Institute of Directors Director of the Year for Lancashire and the North West and been recognised for his business pursuits by the North West Society of Chartered Accounts and as the Lancastrian of the Year in the Be Inspired Business Awards 2009. In 2010 Edwin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Lancaster University for his services to the region and his industry.

Edwin has worked with the Lancashire Universities in the areas of leadership and business change programs. He chaired the Business in the Community (BITC) Advisory Board for the North West from 2007 to 2014 and was instrumental in developing a program to engage schools with business. He is Chairman of the Harris Charity (Preston) which was co-founded by his forebear Edwin Henry Booth and is a founding trustee of the Prince’s Countryside Fund. In June 2011 he was appointed Chair of the Lancashire LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership), a post he held for over 7 years and through which he and the board positioned Lancashire as one of the highest performing LEPs in the country. In 2019 Edwin was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in Her Majesty’s New Year Honours list for services to business and charity. He has been a Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire since 2005.

Edwin’s personal interests are wide and varied. He enjoys classical music and maintains his physical fitness through cycling, walking, skiing and playing tennis. Edwin and his wife Anne have two daughters who share his enthusiasm for good food and wine!

Right Reverend Alan Chesters CBE

In recognition of outstanding achievements in the field of education.

Professor Ian Cumming OBE

In recognition of service to the community in the provision of healthcare in the North west and Cumbria. (awarded 2005 St Martin’s College).

Ian started his career in the NHS as a Biomedical Scientist and later worked as a Research Scientist in coagulation disorders in Manchester, England before moving into general management in the late 1980s. Ian has held a variety of NHS general management posts including Operating Theatre Manager at a large teaching hospital and Assistant Chief Executive to the former North West Regional Health Authority. More recently, Ian has spent 11 years as Chief Executive of acute hospital Trusts, and three years as the Chief Executive of a healthcare commissioning organisation prior to being appointed Chief Executive of the NHS in the West Midlands in 2009. In this role, as one of the 10 top leaders in the NHS, Ian also became a member of the national NHS Management Board. In 2012, Ian was appointed Chief Executive of Health Education England (HEE). Ian was one of the co-authors of the 2015 NHS Five Year Forward View which provides a strategic framework for continuing to improve the quality of care and efficiency of the NHS over the period to 2020. Alongside this, HEE has recently published its own 15 year vision for the needs of patients and how the workforce needs to change to meet these needs. Ian has a particular interest in the development of leadership skills in clinical staff and is an Honorary Professor of Leadership in the Medical School at Lancaster University where, until 2009 he also chaired the Board of the Health Leadership Centre. Ian has also held honorary appointments at the Universities of Liverpool, Cape Town and Cumbria. Ian is the current Chairman of the NHS Leadership Board for England which rotates amongst the Arm’s Length Body Chief Executives. In 2003 Ian was awarded the OBE by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for services to the NHS. In 2010 Ian was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners. Ian also holds honorary degrees at Lancaster University (DSc), Birmingham City University (DUniv), Manchester Met University (DHealth), and the University of Wolverhampton (DSc).

The Right Honourable the Baroness Estelle Morris of Yardley

In recognition of her outstanding contribution to education in the United Kingdom. (awarded 2007)

Estelle Morris was born in Manchester into a political family. She is a graduate of the Coventry College of Education, where she gained a BEd in 1974.  Morris was a Humanities teacher at the inner-city Sidney Stringer School in Coventry from 1974–92, becoming Head of Sixth Form Studies and a member of Warwick District Council from 1979 to 1991.  Morris was elected to Parliament in 1992 for Birmingham Yardley.  She became a minister in the Department for Education and Employment in 1997 and was promoted to Secretary for State for Education and Skills in 2001.  She was the first former comprehensive schoolteacher to have the position.  She resigned her post in October 2002. She rejoined the Government in 2003 as Minister for the Arts in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.  She stepped down as a Member of Parliament at the 2005 general election and in the same year was created a life peer and conferred as Baroness Morris of Yardley, in the County of West Midlands.  Between 2005 and 2009, she was Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sunderland..

Between 2005 and 2008 she was Chair of the Children’s Workforce Development Council, and from 2007 to its closure in 2020 was Chair of the Executive Group of the Institute for Effective Education.  From September 2005 until August 2018, she was a member of the Council of Goldsmiths, University of London, and Chair until August 2018. She also Chairs the Birmingham Education Partnership.  She has been a trustee of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the National Children’s Bureau, and the National Coal-mining Museum.  She is currently a trustee of the Poetry Archive, Sunderland Football Club Foundation and the medical charity, APSUK.

Dr Don Waddell OBE

In recognition of his sustained and outstanding contribution for over four decades to the creation and development of the former art college.

Deceased December 2011

Professor David Vaughan

In recognition of his contribution to Art and Design education and higher education nationally and for major contributions to higher education and Arts education in the North-West and in Cumbria in particular. (awarded November 2007)

David was Principal and Chief Executive of Cumbria Institute of the Arts (CIA) from 1991, retiring in 2007 when the University of Cumbria was created.

He studied at the Central School of Art and Design in London and Bath Academy of Art.  He held teaching and senior management roles at Universities in Lancaster, Liverpool, Brighton and Sheffield and was Associate Registrar at the CNAA, later undertaking reviews of Universities and HEIs for QAA. He was a Director and Vice-Chair of UCAS until 2009; Vice-Chair of GuildHE until 2007; and the first Chair of the Higher Education Academy – Art Design Media Subject Centre 1999 to 2007. He established the Group for Learning in Art and Design as the UK wide HE learning and teaching forum in 1989, being Chair until 2007.  He Chaired the Higher Education Art and Design Trust 1996 to 2005, now leading the HEAD Trust Project supporting advocacy of Creative Arts in Schools to HE as a Trustee. He Chaired the CHEAD Subject Associations Alliance until 2019. Locally he was Chair of Governors of Shankhill School from 2005 to 2012 and Vice-Chair since. He is a Governor of both Richard Rose Central and Morton Academies.  He is a Non-Executive Director of Milan based HEI - Istituto Marangoni in London, an Advisor to Manchester based HEI – Futureworks, and continues as PhD External Examiner at various Universities.

Professor Mick Waters

In recognition of his contribution to education nationally. (awarded November 2007).

Mick Waters works with the schools in several parts of the UK and abroad to develop extended and innovative approaches to learning.  During his career, Mick has been a teacher and head teacher before working at senior levels in Birmingham and Manchester and at a national level as Director of Curriculum. Over several years he has been asked to work in countries across the globe either with national governments or directly with schools to develop revised policy and practice for leadership, governance and classroom teaching.

Recently for the Welsh Government, Mick chaired an Independent Review of School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions with proposals for teachers’ careers and professional learning. He has also conducted a government review on the induction of newly qualified teachers. The report is called ‘Learning to Be a Teacher in Wales’.

Mick is a patron of Values Based Education of SAPERE, promoting Philosophy for Children in learning. He is also a patron of the Curriculum Foundation, promoting the power and potential of the whole curriculum. Mick supports the National Association for Environmental Education as a vice president and is vice chair of the CoEd Foundation promoting compassionate education.

He has written and contributed to many books on the curriculum, teaching and learning, and leadership, as well as making presentations at numerous national and international conferences. His latest book, written with Tim Brighouse, is called ‘About Our Schools: Improving on Previous Best’ and was published in January 2022.

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