Beating A Path To Academic Success
22 February 2011
Professor Keith Horton in interview.
I made the move..to the University of Derby specifically because I wanted to be the Dean of a Faculty.
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Connected talks to Professor Keith Horton about a career which has taken him from murder squad Detective to Dean of the Faculty of Business, Computing and Law at Derby.
If you were to create an identikit picture of the right Dean for the University's Faculty of Business, Computing and Law you might well arrive at the man now doing the job - Professor Keith Horton.
In his time he's been a student in the UK and the USA, worked in the computing and information management academic sector, and even upheld the law as a policeman.
Keith's varied, and by no means traditional, academic career has given him the drive to see people from as many different walks of life as possible have the same chance he did to make their mark in higher education.
On The Beat
Born and educated in the Liverpool area, Keith joined Merseyside Police as an 18-year-old, straight after doing his A levels.
He said: "It's certainly a career that gives you a unique insight into life. As a policeman you interact with parts of society that most people don't even know exist, never mind see.
"What attracted me to the police at that time was that, if you had the enthusiasm and wanted to do something, you had the option to work in a wide range of areas.
"In my eight years with Merseyside Police I went from Police Constable to Acting Inspector and worked as a Detective, as a firearms officer, and even spent time working on information technology (IT) strategy."
It was the experience of working with IT that convinced Keith to leave Merseyside Police and enter higher education. He became a full time student at Sheffield City Polytechnic (later Sheffield Hallam University), doing a BA (Hons) Business Informatics degree (spending a year in the USA) for which he got a 2:1. A Masters degree in Software Engineering at the University of Sheffield followed.
Keith added: "It was interesting going from a police force, which has a regimented structure and an expectation that you will follow orders, to an environment where there was a much greater sense of informality and intellectual freedom. It was that which made me want to make a career in academia."
Edinburgh Bound
He embarked on a PhD and got a job as a Lecturer in Information Management at Edinburgh Napier University. Keith was there for five years before briefly returning to Sheffield Hallam University - managing programme development - then going back to Napier in the more senior role of Director of Postgraduate Programmes, in its School of Computing.
"I did that job for a few years when, much to my surprise, I was asked to become Acting Dean for Napier's Faculty of Computing and Engineering. It was my first exposure to the strategic running of a faculty, managing budgets and staff across a range of discipline areas."
Further posts followed. As Associate Dean for Academic Development he led a revision of the entire Faculty portfolio, oversaw international development, and encouraged business links. Then as Director of Strategic Development and Corporate Intelligence, his particular focus was on making Edinburgh Napier University's processes more cost effective and efficient.
"It was a very good experience, but I made the move from Napier to the University of Derby specifically because I wanted to be the Dean of a Faculty. I had begun as an academic and, despite the fact that my time working on the services side of higher education had been absorbing, I wanted to get back to that."
Looking Ahead
By academic background, Keith is an expert in Information Management, with a research focus on social and organisational informatics (the study of how information and communication technologies interact with society).
Although he'd never set foot in Derby before considering working here, his first impressions were that the University had the same commitment to trying new things and attracting students from non-traditional academic backgrounds that he'd liked in other institutions he'd worked in.
"I'm also keen on outdoor sports such as walking, mountain biking and climbing so having the Peak District on the University's doorstep was a bonus," Keith added. "Although, I've not had any time to get out and about since I took up the position here last October."
He sees great potential in what the BCL Faculty has to offer, especially to business and commerce across the region.
Keith said: "As a Faculty we are heavily dependent upon undergraduate places; growth in the areas of postgraduate, international and commercial activity is of key importance for us.
"Customer service is also going to become increasingly important, as the University deals with the new fees structure for higher education."
As with his own career he feels it is a case of applying enough enthusiasm to create your own 'options', rather than waiting for the opportunities to come to you.
"There was an old sergeant I worked with when I first joined Merseyside Police who advised me to be wary of ever turning down an opportunity." Keith adds with a smile: "He was talking about arrests but if you widen that idea out it's a pretty good philosophy."
