Rector Trainor receives honorary degree from the University of Greenwich

Exeter College’s Rector, Professor Sir Rick Trainor, received an honorary degree from the University of Greenwich on Wednesday 23 March.

Rector Trainor served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich between 2000 and 2004. He was made an Honorary Doctor of the University for ‘his outstanding contribution to higher education as academic leader throughout his career and to the University of Greenwich in particular’.

The University of Greenwich was the first institution Rector Trainor headed, and he notes ‘It was an exciting time for the University and for me.  I was inspired by the diverse, innovative nature of the institution, as I still am.’ He played a major role in developing the University’s multi-institutional Medway Campus. He helped strengthen the University of Greenwich’s ties with its network of further education colleges and other South London universities, with particular attention to the issue of widening participation. He also helped the University of Greenwich to improve its financial position.

Between 2004 and 2014 Rector Trainor served as Vice-Chancellor of King’s College London and, from 2007 until 2009, he was also President of Universities UK, the organisation representing heads of UK universities. He helped to transform King’s, taking it from the 96th ranked institution to 19th in the QS World University Rankings (fifth among UK universities by 2014). It was during his tenure at King’s that Rector Trainor was knighted for services to higher education.

Rector Trainor became the head of Exeter College in 2014 and is a Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford. He was also Chair of Oxford’s Conference of Colleges between 2017 and 2019. His published work has focused on the economic and social history of 19th and 20th century Britain, especially the middle class, its elites, and their involvement in universities. He is about to publish an essay on 19th-century university reform using Exeter College’s leading role in the process as a case study.

The honorary degree from the University of Greenwich is the fourth honorary degree Rector Trainor has received, the others being from the University of Kent, the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, and the University of Glasgow.