The University of Nottingham

Two golds, two silver, one bronze medal — congratulations to our Olympic athletes, those that trained, those that were selected and ultimately those that competed and succeeded. I hope the University’s alumni all over the world enjoyed the spectacle of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

As you’re well aware, graduations are special events. As a rite of passage and celebration these ceremonies are personal and special. The obvious joy of our graduates and pleasure of their families is infectious and I find the whole experience inspiring and uplifting. This year, rather unusually, I had my own graduation.

Liverpool John Moores University conferred their Honorary Fellowship on me. This is the highest honour the University bestows and it was a real privilege to be one of eight honoured in this way. The ceremony was held in the city’s stunning Anglican Cathedral and the University made me and my family feel very special, including my six-week-old grandson who was impeccably behaved, until I began my acceptance speech.

I was deeply touched. I look back very fondly on my time at Liverpool Polytechnic, as it was known then. It kindled a lifelong interest in global economics and gave me a tremendous headstart in my career. I was born and raised in a working-class district of Glasgow and was the first member of my family to go to university. Education is one of the fundamental cornerstones of our society; it has the power to open doors and transform lives and I passionately believe that we have a responsibility to identify and nurture talented young people to fulfil their potential, whatever their backgrounds.

And so that’s why, after the Olympics, a team of University colleagues once again joined me on a Life Cycle ride cycling the UK end-to-end to raise money for Nottingham Potential, a package of measures intended to use education to help deal with disadvantage, a key project within Impact: The Nottingham Campaign, which we launched a year ago.

Our first ride last year was immensely rewarding: in part a direct consequence of taking on and completing the challenge of cycling over 1,000 miles; but also because it was a shared experience, which made it all the more satisfying. But that satisfaction was nothing compared to the level of engagement and interest the ride stimulated and the funds it raised. Between us we generated almost £250,000 for research on palliative and end of life care.

Thanks to your support so far this year’s ride from Cape Wrath to Dover has raised £250,000. Education has the power to transform and the more resource we can generate for bursaries and outreach activity, the bigger the impact we can have.

Visit: www.nottingham.ac.uk/lifecycle.