Honorary awards for former Council CEO and long-serving professor
Thu, 22 Oct 2015 10:24:00 BST
Rob Vincent CBE and Professor Eric Blyth honoured at Graduation Ceremonies
THE hard work and dedication shown from two Huddersfield men is to be celebrated by their local university when they come to collect their awards at the graduation ceremonies in November.
One being an Emeritus Professorship to longstanding member of staff Professor Eric Blyth and the second, an Honorary Doctorate, to former Chief Executive of Kirklees Council, Rob Vincent CBE. The pair will receive their honours at University of Huddersfield’s Graduation Ceremonies, starting on Monday 9 November and running through to Thursday 12th.
Rob Vincent CBE
Rob Vincent CBE (pictured left), who first trained as a civil engineer before taking a Masters in Civic Designs at Liverpool University, is receiving the award of Honorary Doctorate of the University for his services to local government.
Mr Vincent worked as a planner in Dorset and Manchester before joining the Education Service in Kirklees and was Chief Education Officer of the authority in the 1990s. He went on to be the Council’s Chief Executive and led the organisation through a period of community tensions before beginning the major change programmes made necessary by the public sector spending reductions. Under his leadership, Kirklees was made Council of the Year in 2008.
Rob was appointed by the Government to be the Chief Executive at Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council following a highly critical Corporate Governance Inspection. He was awarded a CBE for services to local government in 2010.
Since leaving full-time roles, Rob has worked as Local Government Adviser to the Department of Health and Public Health England as they manage the transition of the public health function from the NHS to local government. He also acted as the Implementation Director for the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Professor Eric Blyth
Professor of Social Work, Dr Eric Blyth (pictured right), is retiring from the University of Huddersfield and receives his Emeritus Professorship for being deemed to have served the institution with “particular distinction”.
Professor Blyth has worked at Huddersfield since 1983 and for more than 20 years, he has been involved in research and policy development in assisted human conception.
As an established member of the British Association of Social Workers Project Group on Assisted Reproduction, he was an active member of an alliance that included social workers, child-care NGOs, parents of donor-conceived children and donor-conceived individuals that campaigned for a change in UK law regarding donor anonymity. That campaign resulted in a successful change of legislation in 2005.
Professor Blyth is currently an international advisor for the China Journal of Social Work, an international assessor for the Hong Kong Social Workers Registration Board and an advisory panel member of the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority (Australia).
