Professor Sir Kevan Collins
PROFESSOR KEITH MCLAY: Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Lieutenant, Mayor of Derby City, honoured guests, Graduands of 2024, and all our guests here today. It gives me great pleasure to present Professor Sir Kevan Collins for the award of Honorary Doctor of the University.
Sir Kevan Collins is one of the most well respected figures in the world of education. His whole professional career has been dedicated to education and public service, driving forward social mobility and access to opportunity, and seeking to serve the most disadvantaged children in our communities.
Kevan was born into an Army family and attended primary schools in Germany, Cyprus and the UK before moving to a secondary school in Lancashire. He completed a degree in Economics and Politics at Lancaster University and went on to study a PGCE at Bradford and Ilkley Community College. His teaching career began in a primary school in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in 1985, and he went on to lead schools in Yorkshire and London.
He gained international experience working in Mozambique, supporting the development of a national literacy initiative in the USA, and advising Australia's largest early learning provider. He completed his doctorate on literacy development at Leeds University in 2001, and by 2002 he had become the National Director of the Primary Strategy.
Kevan took up his post as the first Director of Children's Services in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in 2005. Under his leadership, educational standards and schools were transformed and Tower Hamlets became a national success story. He was promoted to Chief Executive and appeared in a Channel 4 documentary, 'Undercover Boss', in which he served meals on wheels alongside his employees.
In 2011, Kevan was appointed as Chief Executive of the newly formed Education Endowment Foundation. His tenure as an inaugural leader of the Foundation, saw the charity become the largest funder of education research in the UK and established Britain as the world leader in this area.
Kevan was appointed as England's Education Recovery Commissioner in February 2021, tasked with ensuring children and young people could recover the learning lost due to the pandemic. He stepped down just after four months, when the Government's watered down funding package fell far short of what was needed. Kevan said advising the Government on the education recovery plan for England's pupils had been the most important task of his professional life.
After stepping down from full time work at the Education Endowment Foundation, Kevan now spends his time supporting a range of UK and international child and youth focused organisations. He is a Visiting Professor at the University College London Institute of Education, and holds an honorary Doctor of Letters from Durham University. He was knighted for services to education in 2015.
The University of Derby has been aligned with Kevan's work as the Education Secretary's Evidence Champion for Opportunity Areas. His work has been fundamental to supporting local teachers through resources and training to tackle the regional inequalities surrounding educational outcomes for our local pupils. Following the recent election, Kevan has been appointed as Labour's Senior Adviser to the new Education Secretary of State.
Chancellor, in recognition of his commitment to social mobility and equality of opportunity, we are delighted to award Sir Kevan Collins the honorary degree of Doctor of the University.
PROFESSOR SIR KEVAN COLLINS: Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Lieutenant, Mayor of Derby City, Honoured guests and graduates of 2024, and all our guests here today. Thank you for this honour.
As someone who lives in the beautiful county of Derbyshire, being recognised by my own home university is particularly special. I'm also pleased I'm not wearing the same tie in the photograph.
It's very nice when people talk about your successes. And on a day like today, it's absolutely right that we take this time to celebrate important milestones. Being awarded a degree from this great university is no small feat, and I would like to join others to pay tribute to this year's graduates.
However, we know that success and failure are two sides of the same coin. Any success I've had has actually been matched with spectacular failures. I know people in my family, (I've got six brothers, so I know this would happen without doubt), would happily stand up here and make the alternative talk of what Kevan got wrong. It would probably be a longer talk. And as you move on from this moment in your life, I think to the graduates, it's important, I know it's a cliche, but it does ring true, it's not the failure that counts, it's how you respond to the failure.
In a fast changing world powered by knowledge and creativity, the capacity to be a lifelong learner, a willingness, if you like, to take the risk of failing, is core to learning, is priceless.
And as you leave today, you don't leave at the end of your learning, you leave at the beginning of the next stage of learning. In the endless chatter about the value of universities, the evidence is consistent. Completing a higher degree contributes to a longer, healthier and wealthier life. But the skills and knowledge you take away, while essential, are not sufficient. Degrees and pieces of paper will help us get our dream job. But good evidence tells us that it's the social and interpersonal skills we carry that will determine who thrives.
I've had the good fortune, as was said, to lead small, large, billion dollar organisations and work from the ground up as well to start up a new organisation with three of us in a room, ending up with an international profile and employing many hundreds of people.
Now you're the experts, you all completed degrees in business and administration, so I'm hesitant to say anything about this. That technical knowledge is really important. And there are endless books about the three, the five, the seven steps to become a great leader. But for me, two words emerge. The words are passion and trust. They may be different for you.
Passion. Passion is about finding a purpose in what you do and the reward that comes from doing it really well. It took me four missteps, to the anguish of my parents, before I found my passion. Education.
My professional life has been focused on the business of learning, and in particular, how we extend the opportunity to areas and children around the world and in our country who face economic disadvantage.
I never dreamt that it would offer me the chance and the rewards I've received. And with a cold head, when other, more lucrative opportunities like law were available, it might seem an odd choice, but it has been my passion and it's the abiding interest of my life.
And at this point, it would be amiss in whatever you're going to do, give the idea of being a teacher a second thought. There is no more noble profession.
Trust is the second word. Nothing trumps relationships. Gaining the trust of others is priceless. You have my back. I share your values. I have confidence in your wisdom. The things we look for in the people we trust.
As you leave, as people with expertise in business, you will become the managers and leaders. You'll measure yourself on whether the people that you lead trust you. Nothing is more valuable. But remember, trust, it arrives on foot and it leaves on horseback. Hard won, easy to lose.
If I'm teaching a child to read, advising a government on national education policy, working with global enterprise companies, their trust in me or not is the consistent glue that binds the relationship.
Friendships, many forged at university, along with my family, have been the mooring ropes that hold me fast to core values, keep my feet on the ground, and provide comfort in times of grief and difficulty. Your contact lists of close friends that you leave here with is every bit as valuable as a piece of paper you're holding.
Thank you for allowing me to be part of today. I wish you all the very best in the certain knowledge that in time, one of you will stand here with the daunting prospect of addressing this esteemed audience.
Thank you very much, everybody.
Professor Sir Kevan Collins' commendation video
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