Gordon Higginson

Gordon Higginson
Gordon Higginson
Nationality British
Education Leeds University
Work
Engineering discipline Hydrodynamic Lubrication, Tribology and Bio-engineering
Institution memberships Billy Row Working Men’s Club
Employer(s) Ministry of Supply, Leeds University, Durham University, The University of Southampton
Significant projects Higginson report [1]

Professor Sir Gordon Higginson (died, 5 November 2011) DL, PhD, DSc, FREng, FICE, FIMechE was Vice-Chancellor of Southampton University for nine years, retiring in 1994.[2] He was co-author of the standard text on hydrodynamic lubrication and the Higginson Report on A levels.

After graduating from Leeds University, Higginson worked briefly for the Ministry of Supply and was then appointed lecturer at Leeds University in 1953. In 1965 he was appointed to a chair in civil engineering in what is now the School of Engineering and Computing Sciences at Durham University. His research interest was hydrodynamic lubrication and tribology, later extending to bio-engineering.[3]

In the 1990s he served as chair of the engineering board of the Science and Engineering Research Council, the major grant-awarding body in UK academia.[4]

He came to wider prominence when he chaired a committee set up to advise on the reform of the A Level system, producing the "Higginson report" into the use of technology to support learning in colleges.[1] Despite gaining widespread approval, the report was curtly rejected by the government, but many of the detailed proposals still enjoy some currency.

Within the Further Education sector of England there was, arguably, a more successful "Higginson Report". The Learning and Technology Committee, chaired for the FEFC by Gordon Higginson, published its report in 1996. Known universally across English FE as the "Higginson Report", it made a number of recommendations for how the FEFC should go about supporting colleges' use of IT. It set a framework for Information & Learning Technology (ILT) development across the FE sector over following years.

Following the privatisation of the railway system in the UK in the 1990s, he was the founding Chair of the Railway Heritage Committee, which supervised the transfer of historic artefacts and records to collecting institutions.[5]

He was knighted in 1990 and holds the academic titles of DL, PhD and DSc. Durham University has both a lecture series, and a building named in his honour.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Higginson report
  2. ^ "Obituary: Sir Gordon Higginson :: University of Southampton". Soton.ac.uk. http://www.soton.ac.uk/mediacentre/features/gordon_higginson.shtml. Retrieved 2011-11-16. 
  3. ^ Honorary doctoral oration, Loughborough University
  4. ^ New Scientist
  5. ^ Department of the Official Report (Hansard), House of Commons, Westminster. "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 29 Mar 1995". Publications.parliament.uk. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199495/cmhansrd/1995-03-29/Writtens-1.html. Retrieved 2011-11-16. 
  6. ^ Higginson Lectures


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