Deian Hopkin

Sir Deian Rhys Hopkin (born 1 March 1944) is President of the National Library of Wales ^[1] and was from 2001 until 2009 Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of London South Bank University, England. He is an historian, originally from Wales and a fluent Welsh speaker. Born and educated in Llanelli, he attended the first ever Welsh-medium school to be established by a local authority, followed by a scholarship to Llandovery College. He graduated in history at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth ^[2] where he also completed his PhD. After a brief period at Queen Mary College, London, he returned to the Department of History at Aberystwyth where he taught for twenty four years and became Head of Department; for most of that time he was also a tutor at the Open University and was seconded to the OU to develop new courses. In 1991 he was appointed Dean of Human Sciences at City of London Polytechnic which became, in 1992, London Guildhall University (now London Metropolitan University). He was promoted to Vice-Provost in 1996.

He has been actively involved in educational policy and, in particular, the skills agenda of the UK over a number of years. He is currently a Council member of the University of Essex,^[3] the City and Guilds of London Institute,^[4] and the Campaign for Learning. He is a Patron of Futureversity,^[5] Southwark Theatres and Education Partnership (STEP), Hillcroft College for Women and Chairman-Emeritus of the University Centre, Jersey; Highlands College. He was co-chair of the HE Progression Board for the Department for Children, Schools and Families^[6] and HE Champion for the 14–19 Diploma.^[7] In April 2012 he joined the Jisc funded Students FIRST project board as an independent chair.^[8][9]

He is Vice Chairman of the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA)^[10] and Ambassador for Cerebra^[11] and was until 2009 Chairman of the UNIAID Foundation, the national charity supporting students in financial difficulty which has now merged with the Brightside Trust.^[12]

He has published on Labour and press history and on the use of computers in history, and was co-founder of the Association for History and Computing and founding editor of Llafur, The Journal of Welsh People's History, of which he is now a Vice President.^[13] He is Chair of the Local Economy Policy Unit^[14] and a member of the Editorial Board of its journal Local Economy. He is also a Trustee of the Institute of Historical Research Development Trust, University of London and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Times Higher Education. He has extensive broadcasting experience and was a member of the BBC General Advisory Council.

Hopkin is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts, as well as a Freeman of the City of London, the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists and the Company of Educators. He has been elected an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and has an Honorary D.Litt from Glamorgan University,^[15] an Honorary LL.D from McGill University, Montreal, Canada ^[16] and an Honorary D.Univ from the Open University.^[17] He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers and has been awarded a Fellowship of the City and Guilds of London Institute.^[4] He was knighted in the 2009 Birthday Honours.^[18]

In 2009 he was appointed interim Vice-Chancellor of the University of East London and in 2010 was appointed interim Chair of the Student Loans Company.^[19]

References

External links

• List of publications from Microsoft Academic Search