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Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal has presented Robin Dollery, the former Head of Student Services at The University of Nottingham, with his MBE for services to Higher Education and Student Counselling.
In a career spanning 30 years he made an outstanding contribution to the development of student counselling and related support services – from the early days of its introduction to the significant role it plays in Higher Education (HE) today.
Stephen Dudderidge, Director of Student Operations and Support at The University of Nottingham, said: “A combination of Robin’s considerable skills and the fact that he joined this field of work when it was still in its infancy has meant that he has made a major contribution throughout his career.”
As the field of Student Counselling within HE and Further Education (FE) institutions began to develop in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, Robin completed his training in Student Counselling through the University of London. He then went on to take up the newly created post of Student Counsellor in a joint appointment between the Lincolnshire College of Art and Design and North Lincolnshire College.
Robin quickly began to play an inspirational role at a national level. He was a member of the newly formed Advisory Committee for Counselling Services in HE and FE, which began the process of setting up service standards and established fundamental principles and guidelines in order to be appropriately professional, ethical and effective. He played an active role in helping services to develop frameworks for best clinical practice and helped to pave the way for accreditation standards within the profession of Student Counselling.
In 1999 Robin joined The University of Nottingham as Head of the University Counselling Service, a post he held for four years. He continued to contribute to the development of student counselling at a national level through his key membership of the Executive Committee of HUCS - the national body for heads of University counselling services.
In 2003 Robin became Head of Student Services and within this role once again took up pioneering work focussing on the quality of the ‘student experience’ and raising this area of University life to the centre stage it commands today. He established Student Service Centres, bringing together key aspects of student support into one accessible service point on the University’s UK campuses. He also led transformational change in the way in which day-to-day support for students in University accommodation and academic schools connected appropriately and effectively with central counselling and other wellbeing services.
As the University developed its profile in Asia, establishing campuses in Malaysia and China, Robin nurtured the development of wellbeing services in an entirely different cultural setting. As a member of one of the UK’s most diverse and multi-national universities, Robin had already led a research project into the ways in which International students – particularly Chinese and South East Asian students – accessed healthcare and related support in the UK. He then played a particularly vital role in raising the profile of student counselling to a new level by establishing a Counselling Service at the University’s campus in Ningbo, China – a landmark development that has grown and flourished over recent years.
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Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham has 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with a “distinct” approach to internationalisation, which rests on those full-scale campuses in China and Malaysia, as well as a large presence in its home city.’ (Times Good University Guide 2016). It is also one of the most popular universities in the UK among graduate employers and the winner of ‘Research Project of the Year’ at the Times Higher Education Awards 2014. It is ranked in the world’s top 75 by the QS World University Rankings 2015/16, and 8th in the UK by research power according to the Research Excellence Framework 2014. It has been voted the world’s greenest campus for three years running, according to Greenmetrics Ranking of World Universities.
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