Sir John receives honorary award from His Royal Highness

Sir John Parker received an Honorary Doctorate of the University for services to business and the economy

SPEAKING as Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, HRH The Duke of York, KG, has hailed the importance of engineers for the future of society.  He described engineering is “a fundamental application of everything”.

“Nothing in this world would ever get done if it wasn’t for the fact that it is engineered in some way or another,” said His Royal Highness, speaking at one of the graduation ceremonies taking place at the University over a ten-day period.

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It was for graduates of the School of Computing and Engineering, and The Duke congratulated the students on their success and paid tribute to the support and encouragement provided by friends and families plus teaching staff.

The fact that Huddersfield had been awarded a gold star in the new Teaching Excellence Framework highlighted the quality of the institution, added the His Royal Highness.

Earlier in the ceremony, an Honorary Doctorate of the University had been conferred on the leading engineer and industrialist Sir John Parker.  The Duke of York used his career as an example of high achievement that could be emulated by graduate engineers – although hard work would be required.

“Everything that is done at university and from here onwards is about collaboration, teamwork, leadership and about finding ways of saying ‘yes, we can, and there is a solution’,” said His Royal Highness.

“You engineers, in all your various fields, are brilliantly placed to deliver that.  I would like to see many more ‘yesses’ in education and industry, leading to solutions that are going to benefit not only our society, but global society,” he added.

Sir John Parker

Sir John Parker, after receiving his honorary doctorate from The Duke of York, passed on advice that he received at the start of his career – that “the opportunity of a lifetime must be seized within the lifetime of the opportunity”.

“With your hard-earned degrees you will be in a position to seize opportunities and in turn to be of real value to the society that we are privileged to live in,” said Sir John.

His career was outlined in an oration delivered by Dr Leigh Fleming, who is Subject Area Leader and Lecturer (Mechanical and Automotive) in the School of Computing and Engineering.

She told how his career began in the shipbuilding industry of Sir John’s native Northern Ireland and how he had held executive positions with many leading companies in a wide range of fields.

“During his period as President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Sir John laid great stress on the importance of education in engineering, and the so-called STEM subjects, and the importance of government adopting a modern industrial strategy,” said Dr Fleming.

“Here at the University of Huddersfield we share many of Sir John’s core beliefs about the need to create a culture in which universities, schools and industry work together to seal the skills gap by training new generations of scientists and engineers,” she continued.

“It is because of this shared sense of mission, as much as his exceptionally long and distinguished career, that we are proud to offer Sir John Parker an Honorary Doctorate.”