Heavyweight National Award Beckons For 'Light-hearted' Law Tutor
25 April 2013
Award finalist, Senior Law Lecturer David Hodgkinson, pictured with (left to right) 2013 Client Interviewing Competition student entrants Yasmin Jivraj and Samantha Hand.
Senior Law Lecturer David Hodgkinson.
Law students have voted a University of Derby lecturer with a fun approach to teaching into the running for a serious national award.
Senior Law Lecturer David Hodgkinson uses skills he once employed doing occasional stand-up comedy gigs to make his lectures and tutorials fun and entertaining.
His students have responded positively to that by voting him into the shortlist for the 'Law Lecturer of the Year' award, run by influential legal profession website LawCareers.Net.
David, who has been at the University of Derby since December 2007, is one of only six award finalists, chosen from the 254 lecturers originally nominated. The winning lecturer will be announced at the LawCareers.Net Training and Recruitment Awards, to be held at the Design Museum in London on Thursday May 16.
The Derby tutor's recent successes include steering two of his students on the LL.B Skills degree module to success last summer (2012) in a national contest to test courtroom skills. In March this year David also got another pair of his degree students to Third Place in the finals of another competition, the 2013 Client Interviewing Competition for England and Wales, held at Cardiff University.
David, 47, of Belper - who no longer does stand-up comedy - said: "I was surprised and delighted to hear about the nomination and getting on the award shortlist, especially as I know it comes directly from the students themselves.
"I think there's a bit of the would-be entertainer in all lecturers, as we also have to keep an audience engaged, and mixing some humour into teaching a weighty subject like Law is perhaps what has enabled me to receive this very flattering endorsement from my students."
Kevin Bampton, Head of the School of Law and Criminology at the University, added: "David is not only an excellent Law tutor but well-liked and respected by his students. I wish him the best of luck with the 'Lecturer of the Year' award announcement on May 16."
For more information about the University of Derby's School of Law and Criminology see web link www.derby.ac.uk/law
For further press information please contact Sean Kirby, University of Derby Press and PR Officer, on 01332 591891 or email: s.kirby@derby.ac.uk
