Stuart Billingham: From Academia to Fiction, reflections on a Career

Our alumni community isn’t just for past students. We also welcome past staff members to stay in touch with us as they continue their careers, or relax into retirement. In this blog post, we hear from Stuart Billingham who was a Pro Vice Chancellor at York St John after it gained university status in 2006, and is now a Professor Emeritus of Lifelong Learning.

Stuart Billingham

Where are you from and where do you live now?

I was born and raised in West Bromwich (and yes, before any of you football fans ask, I am a Baggies Supporter – “for my sins” as I often say); and left home at 18 to go to Essex University. I now live in York, though actually in a small village on the edge of that beautiful city.

What degrees do you have and when and where did you complete them?

My first degree was a BA (Hons) in Government & Sociology from Essex University awarded in 1973. I achieved an Upper Second-Class Honours which enabled me to then go to Bristol University to study for an MSc in Social Sciences (with a specialism in “Race Relations” as it was then known), awarded in January 1975.

For a few months from October 1974 I did some part-time teaching of adults – notably for me with the Worker’s Education Association (WEA) – and other jobs to pay rent and put food on the table. I then worked full-time for a year as an Assistant Research Officer with the Home Office Research Unit, and then left to work in Germany and do fieldwork for a part-time PhD at the University of Bristol.

I returned to the UK in late 1977 and became a full-time lecturer in Sociology at Bedford College of Higher Education in January 1979. Whilst there I was awarded my Doctor of Philosophy by the University of Bristol in October 1982. I also studied part-time (from 1985) for the Certificate in Education (Further Education) delivered by Huddersfield Polytechnic and awarded to me just as I left Bedford in 1987.

Which degree experience was your favourite?

This is really tricky as I enjoyed all of my degree experiences for different reasons:

• Essex for the friends I made and with whom I am still in regular contact via WhatsApp – 50 years later
• the MSc for the cutting-edge research and ideas I was exposed to and which, I believe, gave me a passport to at least one future job
• the Certificate in Education for what it showed me about being an effective teacher of adults, and the camaraderie with other students on the course
• the PHD because through it I learned a second language – German – the rudiments of which have stayed with me throughout the years and I still use today when I meet German people…which I do regularly in Spain.

What do you do in your spare time?

I play golf – or, at least, I walk around golf courses often with my wife, and with golf balls and clubs. I enjoy DIY and do that both at our house in York and the one in Spain. I can’t say I enjoy the chores – grocery shopping, washing-up, tidying-up, keeping domestic paperwork in order, etc – around the house but I do them anyway. A little of my time is taken with keeping an eye on our 92-year-old neighbour whose wife is in a care home; sometimes getting stuff for him from the shops but mainly just trying to keep his spirits up. He and I have some great laughs together.

Do you have any ongoing projects and if so, what are they?

About a year ago I published my first novel. Since then, I have written a sequel (currently “in press”) and had a second fictional work published by a different publisher – this time short stories aimed at young children (4-8 years) – and am now writing my second book of short stories for that age group.

From academia to Fiction writing

Why did you decide to pursue an academic career and how did you secure your first role in the field?

When I joined Bedford College in 1979, I taught classes following GCSE Sociology, some studying A Level Sociology, and others following a BA Combined Honours degree programme, including those in their third and final year. On balance, I enjoyed teaching these degree courses the most and decided a career teaching in “the academy” was for me.

I feel sure looking back at them that it was my references which clinched the post in the end. On reflection, my application was strong – not only because of my academic background but also experience of teaching adults with the WEA, and US Army soldiers in Germany – and my interview was OK. Yet as I learned my references were wonderful. I won’t name them, but it’s good to have the chance to thank my referees publicly for the help they gave me to get my first foot on the post-school teaching ladder.

What’s your favourite memory from your time at YSJ and why?

One is purely personal, the other more about the University.

The first is the Friday afternoon when the Vice Chancellor knocked on my office door – my office being directly above hers – opened it and said, “Professor Billingham?”. It was not in the least unusual for the VC to come to my office, so I spun round in my chair away from my computer and said, “Vice Chancellor…”, and then stopped short as I realised she had called me “Professor”. I knew the Committee of Professors had its planned second meeting that day to finally consider ‘Professorial applications’, including mine. However, I had temporarily forgotten this, being absorbed in some important and difficult work. I stood up, she smiled, came across the room, embraced me and said “Congratulations Stuart”.

For someone with mixed middle class and working-class roots, with less than a handful on my father’s side of the family who had been to University and none on my mother’s side (and no other professors in the family then, before, or since) this was an INCREDIBLY special moment for me.

The other, is the day that York St John University College, as it was then known, was granted University Title by the Privy Council, and consequently became York St John University. When we finally achieved University Title, I was very tired and drained emotionally. I was euphoric and tearful. We had done it.

What’s your least favourite memory from your time with us?

Dealing with difficult staff, wins this one hands down.

You were heavily involved in YSJ gaining its university status in 2006. What did this involve, and can you give a brief explanation of your role in this?

I was by this time a Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Institutional Auditor with some experience of inspecting other institutions. This experience gave me a little insight into the way the QAA inspection team might approach their work at YSJ to see if we met the criteria to be a University. This was not a brief examination of what the institution did – it was an in-depth, detailed, and “surgical” examination over several months.

Typically, my days began even earlier than usual – in the office by 07.30 latest. Then a briefing meeting with the Principal and maybe the Registrar (a really key player in this process too) and Deputy Principal, followed by a series of briefing and de-briefing meetings with those groups meeting the inspectors each day when the inspectors were in College. That would involve different groups of academic staff at all levels and from every Faculty as well as administrative staff. Some days it might involve Governors, student representatives, members of College committees, and so on. I also met privately with the inspectors to ensure they were getting everything they needed – and try to glean the key issues they were concerned to explore, needed greater information about, or were maybe troubled about. In between all these meetings I would try to do some of “the day job” (which of course didn’t go away) but in all honesty much of that had to wait until the evening at home. It was an exhilarating and exhausting time in equal measure.

In your academic career you’ve worked towards creating strategic changes to higher education. In layman’s terms, what does that mean and what is your dream for higher education?

A strategy is a description of how you want to achieve your aims. It’s a plan but generally one with longer-term consequences. So, for example, the UK government has a strategy for “defeating” Covid-19 which involves rolling-out the vaccines as fast as possible and especially to the most vulnerable or ‘at risk’ members of the population; whilst, in the meantime, we all stay at home and do everything we can to reduce the transmission rate. This is a strategy for significant change – a world without massive numbers of deaths from this virus and less pressure on hospitals treating those infected.

The strategic change of higher education towards which I’ve worked is to create a system which is fairer and more equitable. To do that, I have argued consistently:

• for fairer admissions systems
• for teaching and learning approaches which acknowledge diversity both in the curriculum and in the classroom
• for greater diversity among academic staff in universities
• for institutional policies and practices which are inclusive and acknowledge the needs of all kinds of students

In essence, then, it has been an argument for a root and branch change in the way many (most?) institutions have historically been organised and have worked. Strategic change is about “big thinking”.

So, my dream for higher education is that it is accessible (in all its aspects) to all who can benefit from it.

On a positive note, the picture is so much better now than it was when I started HE teaching, just over 40 years ago – but, there remains much more to be done.

Do you have any advice for our alumni looking at an academic career?

• Reflect on your strengths and weaknesses – how well do your strengths map onto the main tasks of an academic (look at some job descriptions of “junior” lecturers)
• Think about the very best lecturer you have had at university. Can you be that good or even better? Have you tried doing it, maybe as a part-time or seasonal tutor?
• Take advice from someone in HR (Human Resource Management) in a University. What do they look for when appointing new academic staff?
• Are you really passionate about your specialist subject and can you convey that to students and others? Do you have evidence of that?

What prompted you to start writing fiction?

The short version of the story is that I had started to write my first novel whilst still at work. It was a story centred around some rather strange things that had happened to me during my life and I enjoyed writing about them as if a “fiction”. For a host of reasons, I put it away and forgot about it. After I had stopped full-time work, my wife asked me about it and why didn’t I pick it up again? So, I did. After some additional work on it, and to my absolute surprise, a publisher said it was publishable and, eventually, it was published. I now had “the bug”.

You can find out more about Stuart’s debut novel on the Austin Macauley website.

So far, you’ve written a thriller and a series of children’s short stories. What made you decide to start writing for children too?

My first book of short stories – “The Adventures of Young Molly Stevens” – was stimulated by my wife and I spending a weekend with our Great Niece (the real Molly) and her Mum and Dad. The book came to me so easily even though the stories (except the first one) bear no direct relationship to that weekend. They were though all inspired by a fantastic weekend with great people. Having found it such fun to write; getting some great feedback; and having a publisher decide to publish quite quickly (that’s ‘quite quickly’ using a publisher’s timeframe) I decided that writing for this age range (4-8 years) was for me.

You’ve had a varied career, from a lecturer to Pro Vice chancellor, to a children’s author. What are your top five moments from your career?

I’ve mentioned a couple of these before, but here is the list in chronological order:

• The day in 1982 when I attended for my ‘viva voce’ (the final examination) at Bristol University for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and, as I waited very nervously on a chair outside the room, one of the Professors opened the door and said “Dr Billingham? Please do come in”.
• The day I discovered I had been awarded the title of ‘Professor’.
• The day York St John was awarded University Title.
• The publication in 2018 of my final academic book, Access to Success and Social Mobility through Higher Education, which is composed of articles (edited by me) by colleagues from the UK and around the world with whom I had worked over many years
• The day I received the email saying that Austin MacAuley Publisher wanted to publish my first novel.

What would you consider to be your greatest career achievement?

That’s easy.

Becoming the first Pro-Vice Chancellor at York St John University.

Enjoyed this post? Keep an eye out for more posts about York St John and Ripon College alumni coming soon. Have you read our post about alumna Kylie Moody yet?