Professor Richard Mawditt from the University of Bath’s School of Management has been awarded the City of London Institute of Management Champion of the Year 2010.

Professor Mawditt is recognised for his contribution to higher education management over many years. He has held the UNESCO Chair in Higher Education Management for the past ten years with special interests and activity in southern Africa. He is a member of the Board and Honorary Treasurer of the Council for Education in the Commonwealth which celebrated its Jubilee last year with a major Commonwealth Conference in Oxford.

He received the accolade at The Mansion House in the City of London on 9 June and was presented with an engraved plate.

When he joined Bath, Professor Mawditt was the youngest Finance Director at a UK university and went on to become the University’s Head of Administration and subsequently in an academic role the Director of the International Centre for Higher Education Management before retirement.

His many management roles have included being chairman of the highly successful Bath Rugby Football Club, for which he was particularly proud of steering the transition from the amateur to professional era at both club and national levels, and Governor for over twenty years at Millfield Schools. Locally in Bath Richard Mawdiit has been a long standing Trustee of the Holburne Museum, Scout Commissioner for Avon and has held a number of Non-Executive Directorships including the RUH; the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering and Bath Enterprise Ltd.

Professor Mawditt gave an acceptance speech, to an audience of both business leaders and academics, entitled “Universities are Businesses too!”

Professor Mawditt said: “Being The 2010 London Institute Management Champion and finding myself in the company of the Lord Mayor and Sheriff of London and celebrating in the Mansion House added more than a tinge of excitement to the serious business of debating the alliance between business and academe at this demanding time for both.”