Robert Challis
Honorary fellowship
Year conferred: 2005
After graduating in maths and philosophy, Bob Challis began his career by becoming a lecturer in Birmingham in 1968. In 1970 Bob secured a lecturing post at Loughborough Technical College and remained there for two years until he became a senior lecturer at Ealing College of Higher Education and completed his MA at Sussex in 1976.
Seven years followed as a staff tutor at The Further Education Staff College, Coombe Lodge, where Bob undertook teaching and research in FE management. In 1985 he moved to Somerset to take up the role of senior inspector for post-fourteen education with the Local Education Authority.
In 1989 Bob made the move to Oxfordshire, as principal of Abingdon College. There were also wider initiatives: in the late 1990s he led the pioneering county-wide programme to widen adult participation in learning, and from 2000 to 2003 he was the founding Chair of 'CoMBO' - the Colleges of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
The college responsibility increased when, in 2001, Abingdon College and West Oxfordshire College merged to form Abingdon and Witney College, accommodating some 14,000 students. In 2004 it became the first local college to establish a formal partnership with Oxford Brookes.
Bob Challis has previously acted as a consultant on numerous further and higher education issues, a role which he has taken up again since his retirement as principal in 2004. He has published a number of books and papers on college management, curriculum change and course evaluation.
