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JOHN KENNEDY LECTURE 2025: DAME LOUISE RICHARDSON DISCUSSES HER LIFE, CAREER AND HER STUDIES ON TERRORISM AT THE JOHN KENNEDY LECTURE.

Dame Louise Richardson, the first woman to be Vice Chancellor of Oxford University delivered the second lecture in the new John Kennedy series at the University of Manchester on Thursday 22nd May 2025.

Chaired by Duncan Ivison (the new President and VC of Manchester) Dame Louise discussed the key factors which drove her career from her homeland of Ireland (where little was expected of her) to Oxford – and along the way saw her take up the key Presidential and VC role at St. Andrews in Scotland before her history making 7-year term at Oxford and onto become the President of the prestigious Carnegie Corporation in New York, one of the world’s leading  philanthropic foundations.

Dame Louise told a large and engaged audience in the city that ‘Astra-Zeneca deserved more applause’  for the ground breaking deal which they signed with Oxford to distribute the covid vaccine worldwide saving millions of lives and ending the lockdowns of 2020 and beyond.

She also discussed the origins of terrorism – a subject she helped to pioneer in academic circles and answered questions on the current conflict and causes in Gaza as well as outlining her views on the importance of all views being heard politically within academic institutions in the US and beyond.

John Kennedy CBE described the event as ‘stimulating’ ‘surprising’ and ‘Inspiring’ especially he concluded; ‘when you consider Dame Louise believed she would never be considered for the ancient spires of Oxford and could never have imagined she would lead and inspire the team which freed the world from covid’. 

‘It was a joy and honour to invite her to Manchester and for her to accept the invitation to join us for this engaging and enlightening series of lectures’.     

The event concluded with a reception in the Nancy Rothwell Building on campus.

The John Kennedy Lectures began at the University of Liverpool and became part of the Manchester landscape in 2024 when Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland, became the inaugural speaker of the new Manchester based series. The President  also received an Honorary Doctorate from Manchester during his visit.

 

Educate North Awards – Winners Announced

DAME CAROL ANN DUFFY AND UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL CELEBRATE WITH TOP EDUCATIONAL AWARDS.

TEACHER WINS SECOND AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING SUPPORT FOR CANCER CHILD.   

The Poet Laurette to Queen Elizabeth the Second; a school teacher who showed enormous care and support for a dying pupil and institutions responsible for breakthroughs, sustainability and growing standards were among the winners of the 11th ENAs – Educate North Awards (www.educatenorth.co.uk) staged in Manchester on Thursday 3rd April 2025.

Dame Carol Ann Duffy DBE thanked family, friends as well as her peers at Manchester Metropolitan University, as Professor Mark Power, handed her The Lifetime Achievement Award at the start of a remarkable and  often emotional ceremony as the work of the North’s Universities, Higher Education and Further Education and Sixth Forms were celebrated at the annual ENAs dinner.

Professor Power, Vice Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University, described her as an ‘Extraordinary poet, teacher and literary trailblazer’ who was the ‘First woman, first Scot and first openly LGBTQ+ poet to be appointed Poet Laureate’. 

During the night Durham School Teacher Susan Allinson heard tributes from the parents of Bob Theakston who tragically died of cancer at aged 6 in 2024 for the remarkable way she became almost a ‘second mother’ as he battled the disease. 

‘I don’t think of myself as special, it’s just what we should all do’ she told the audience.

Susan Allinson rose to a standing ovation as she was handed her ENA trophy after being nominated by listeners to Smooth and Heart radio across the North. She was previously appointed a winner in 2022.

Ranvir Singh from ITV’s ‘Good Morning Britain’ brought warmth and humour to the stage as she hosted the night which saw University of Liverpool named ‘University of the Year’; Greenhead College was named ‘Further Education College of the Year’  and there were wins for Alexia Lopez of University of Central Lancashire as ‘University/PHD Student of the Year’ and later a £1000  gift for the first ever winner of the ‘Liverpool Hope Prize’for outstanding work in the area of social mobility.

The full list of winners judged by business, academic and media specialists as well as those  nominated by radio listeners can be seen below and on www.educatenorth.co.uk as well as on the websites of Smooth NW; Smooth NEand Heart Yorkshire.

‘2025 has been an exceptional year for these awards which encourage, praise and celebrate developments and achievements in a sector which so often feels forgotten by decision makers in government and elsewhere’ said Broadcaster Rob McLoughlin OBE who founded the ENAs in 2015. ‘We have had record entries for the ENAs, for the entrepreneurs competition we stage and for our Heart and Smooth Radio Awards.’ 

‘Tonight is an opportunity to demonstrate the importance of the sector to individuals but also to the growth and success of Northern England as an economic and cutting-edge force; we always hope Whitehall is listening’.

University of Liverpool Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tim Jones said: “This is a huge honour for the University, and I’m delighted with this fantastic win’’.

“We are proud to have made important progress in all major international and domestic league tables over the last year and, indeed, we are the only Russell Group university to improve across all five. This, together with our strengths in education and experience, research and innovation, internationalisation, and economic impact really set us apart. Our success at these prestigious awards is testament to the incredible work by teams across the institution and I wish to extend a huge congratulations to them all.”

Four students from Newcastle, Chester, Liverpool and Manchester also competed in the University Entrepreneurs Grant (UEG) as they pitched their new business ideas to the audience of more than 420 contemporaries with the winner walking away with £1000 to write a business plan and have the option of being mentored at the award-winning Business School at the University of Chester.

Emeritus Professors Phil Harris and Ruth Ashford lead the twenty-five strong independent judging panel and official patrons are University of Manchester; Liverpool John Moores University and entrepreneur John Kennedy CBE.

Sponsors for 2025 include CCUK owners of Heart and Smooth; IT Capital; Liverpool Hope University; Mindful Education and Interact.

The ENAs are staged by RM Communications Ltd and produced by Rowan Scahill. They will return in 2026.

During the event tributes were paid to the late Professor Peter Starbuck who supported the awards initiative and Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, welcomed guests from across the UK to the 11th awards praising the winners and nominees as  ‘a cause so important to everyone from the east to west coast; you have pioneered key areas of learning, developed new scientific and medical techniques and inspired the generations which will drive us forward in the future’.

Full results:

ENAS ’25:

  • Lifetime Achievement Award – Dame Carol Ann Duffy DBE
  • Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Award – Hull College – Silent Voices, Vivid Stories
  • Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) Initiative Award – Northumbria University & Woodhorn Mining Museum – STEM Communities
  • Liverpool Hope Prize; Outstanding Achievement for Social Mobility – Northern College in Yorkshire – The North’s only adult residential education college
  • Community Engagement Award – HE/FE Sector – Education Partnership North East & Northumbria Police – Trainee Detective Programme
  • Community Engagement Award – University Sector – York St John University – Converge
  • Business Engagement, Employer Award – HE/FE Sector – Franklin Sixth Form College – Emma Swinburn, Jaime Hansen, Honor Walton – Meet the Future
  • Business Engagement, Employer Award – University Sector – University of Central Lancashire – Centre for SME and Enterprise Development (CSMEED) and the Institute for Research into Work and Employment (iROWE)
  • Heart Creative Arts Award – Sunderland College – Creative Arts ‘Thread of Life’ – A response to the August 2024 Northeast riots
  • Apprenticeship Award – York St John University – Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship – Improving the Standard of Policing
  • College or FE Student Achievement of the Year – Eshan Bilal, Burnley College
  • University/PHD Student Achievement of the Year – Alexia Lopez, University of Central Lancashire
  • Digital Education and Development Award – University of Huddersfield – Graduate Career Explorer
  • Innovation Award – The Christie Hospital – Teenage & Young Adult Service
  • Mental Health and Wellbeing Award – Hopwood Hall College – Addressing Emotionally Based Non-Attendance in Rochdale
  • The Sustainable Green Initiative – Hull College – Rising Tides, Rising Minds
  • Third Sector Award – HMT St Hughs Hospital & Humber Health Partnership, Diana Princess of Wales Hospital – Sepsis, Together We Can Succeed Conference
  • Student Experience Award – HE/FE Sector – The Sixth Form Bolton – Women into Leadership Programme
  • Student Experience Award – University Sector – University of Central Lancashire – Transforming Interprofessional Education
  • Student Experience Award – University Sector – University of Chester – Academic Skills Team, The Skills Pod
  • Campaign of the Year – Northumbria University – NU ALLSTARS
  • Business School of the Year – Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool Business School
  • Leadership and Innovation Award – Aline Miller, The University of Manchester
  • Law School of the Year – Manchester Law School
  • Further Education College of the Year – Greenhead College
  • University of the Year – University of Liverpool

UEG (UNIVERSITY ENTREPRENEURS GRANT) :  

  • Alex & Tom Banner, TAB Customs – Newcastle University
  • HEART AND SMOOTH RADIO AWARDS: 
  • Outstanding School, College or University – Royal Northern College of Music
  • Outstanding Head Teacher – Scott Cordon, King’s Leadership Academy Liverpool
  • Outstanding Teacher – Susan Allinson, Woodham Burn Community Primary Schoo,Durham.

President of Ireland launches new John Kennedy Lecture Series at University of Manchester – April 2024

President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, receives honorary degree from The University of Manchester and launches new lecture series.

President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, visited The University of Manchester this week and spent two days on campus, during which he has been presented with an honorary degree and gave the inaugural lecture of the John Kennedy Lecture Series to invited guests.

On Tuesday 23 April, President Higgins attended a conferral dinner at The Whitworth during which he was presented with his honorary degree. In 2011, Michael D. Higgins was inaugurated as the ninth President of Ireland and re-elected in November 2018 to serve a second term in office. The President undertook postgraduate studies at The University of Manchester from 1968 -1971. 

Speaking at the conferral ceremony, President Higgins said: “The conferral of a Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) from this esteemed University is an honour I very much appreciate, receiving it as I do in what is a very special year for The University of Manchester as it celebrates its 200th anniversary. This honour that you have bestowed on me has a particular personal resonance, given my family connections with Manchester. My two sisters came to Manchester in the late 1950s and married and reared their families here. This was followed by my own experience as a postgraduate student at this University in the late 1960s, times of hope and promise. 

“This period and the work of scholars I met and worked with instilled in me a profound and lifelong interest in migration. This honour I accept today, not just for myself, but for all migrants and those who study and care for them.”

A passionate political voice, a poet and writer, academic and statesman, human rights advocate, promoter of inclusive citizenship and champion of creativity within Irish society, Michael D. Higgins has previously served at every level of public life in Ireland, including as Ireland’s first Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht.

Speaking about the visit Professor Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University said: “In conferring an honorary degree upon President Higgins and looking forward to his lecture we celebrate power of sharing knowledge to unite us and inspire change. It is especially important during our bicentenary year in which we celebrate 200 years of our incredible people and community and look toward the future.”

On Wednesday 24 April, The President delivered the first of a new annual series of lectures at The University of Manchester named the John Kennedy Lecture Series. The lecture series will run for five years as part of the University’s School of Arts, Languages and Cultures. The lectures will promote topics related to the island of Ireland. The lecture will be live streamed and available to watch online.

The title of the inaugural lecture, presented by President Higgins is: ‘Of the consciousness our times need in responding to interacting crises and the role of Universities as spaces of discourse in facilitating it.’

The President’s lecture touched on themes including; Universities providing grounds for thinking freely and empowering students to think freely for the betterment of society and especially their own societies.

The new lecture series is so named in honour of Dr John Kennedy CBE. Dr Kennedy was brought up in a large family in Ireland, he came to Northwest England and founded John Kennedy Civil Engineering. Over the next three decades, turnover grew from £10,000 to £60 million, making it one of the UK’s most successful construction and engineering companies. 

Commenting on the inaugural lecture of the John Kennedy Lecture Series at The University of Manchester, Dr John Kennedy, said: “It is an honour and tremendous pleasure to welcome the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins to the first in this new series of lectures. I am very proud to not only support education in the UK but in particular to be alongside The University of Manchester as it celebrates its 200th anniversary and remains a pioneering centre of excellence and achievement. I knew  the  lecture would be inspiring and thought provoking at a time when the world is in need of peace and wisdom.”

Mark Logan MP pays tribute to John Kennedy

Mark Logan MP (Bolton North East) paid tribute to John Kennedy’s career in Parliament on 14 March 2024. Here is the speech, transcribed in Hansard:

My right hon. Friend the Member for Staffordshire Moorlands mentioned the construction industry. There is a gentleman by the name of Dr John Kennedy who lives just outside Greater Manchester in Cheshire. He was born in Mayo.

When he told me this story, it felt a bit like “Angela’s Ashes”. He spoke about how he, one of his siblings and his mother travelled to the United States, but his sibling sadly passed away during that time of hardship. He said that when he returned to Mayo in the 1950s and 1960s, there were no jobs, so he had to make his way to London. When he got there, he had no skills but, on day one, he got up and said, “I’m going to work harder than every single person around me. I’m going to put my head down and make something of myself.”

He started off cleaning and, after a year or two, he set up his own cleaning company. It all snowballed, and he eventually ended up with a construction company that he sold around 20 years ago for roughly £100 million—give or take £20 million; I might be a bit off there, but it was a colossal sum. He was involved in the Good Friday/Belfast agreement in 1998, because his construction company produced a commemorative article for it. I pay testament to him and the hundreds of thousands of others who have contributed so much to British society.

Educate North Awards 2023

The North’s prestigious educational awards are back for 2023 and categories across the University, HE, FE and Sixth Form sectors are now open for entries. 

Educate North Awards launched in 2015 with the clear aim of celebrating the world-class success of the North’s education sector and to encourage excellence, achievement, and improvement across 23 special categories. 

2023 will see new categories emerge to encourage outstanding performance in the arts, in digital and in student experience and welfare/

The University Entrepreneurs Grant (UEG) will also return as 4 students or graduates with bright business ideas will once again compete on the night for a £1000 prize and the chance to study at The Masood Entrepreneurship Centre at the University of Manchester. The 2020 UEG winner, Dr Mohammad Elhaj, has raised millions of pounds in investment since he walked away with the trophy, and it’s hoped another winner can replicate his superb success.

The Awards are promoted and sponsored by 4 of the most popular radio stations playing to millions of listeners across the North including Smooth North West, Heart Yorkshire, Smooth North East and Manchester’s XS, all part of the Communicorp UK group; The University of Manchester is Patron of the awards along with John Kennedy CBE. 

Beebot AI became sponsors in 2022 and will return in 2023 along with CCL Digital and other new sponsors which will be announced shortly. 

‘These awards focus attention on the best and most impressive achievements of staff, students and institutions across Northern England at a moment of immense change and pressure’ said Emeritus Professor Phil Harris, Chair of the Judges; ‘The standard of entries gets higher each year and the popular awards event ensures that we recognise the incredible work which so many people are doing despite the complexities of education in the UK currently’.

The Awards Dinner will take place on the evening of Thursday 27th April 2023 at The Midland Hotel in Manchester.

Entrants have till January 20th 2023 to submit their entries which will be judged by academics and business people from across the UK. Entries via www.educatenorth.co.uk 

There will also be 3 special awards nominated by listeners to Smooth, Heart and XS in the North.

Enter the awards now by visiting: https://educatenorth.co.uk/how-to-enter/ 

Radio partners announced for 2019 Educate North Awards

Radio stations Smooth North East, Smooth North West and Heart Yorkshire have all returned as official partners of the 2019 Educate North Awards.

The Awards will be sponsored by the Communicorp Ltd owned companies for the second year running and will highlight the best achievements of Universities throughout the region.

“Radio is a fabulous medium for Educate North,” said Dr John Kennedy CBE, Patron of the Awards. “The awards represent a tremendous opportunity to showcase the North in the middle of uncertain times.”

For more details, visit the Prolific North news story here.