Simon Lee (academic)

Professor Simon Francis Lee (born 29 March 1957 in Gillingham, Kent). Professor Lee is a Fellow of St Edmund's College, Cambridge (http://www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/people/professor-simon-lee), the Executive Director of the Cambridge

Theological Federation [1], Professor of Law at the Open University and emeritus professor of jurisprudence at Queen’s University Belfast. He is also chairman of the advisory council of International Schools Partnership. ISP raised £200m and is investing in schools around the world, starting with Spain and the UK.

His latest book, Vincent’s 1863-2013, was published by Third Millennium on 6 May 2014 [4], the 60th anniversary of Vincent’s Sir Roger Bannister running the first sub four minute mile. Sir Roger Bannister contributes the foreword to the book. Simon Lee was made an honorary member of Vincent’s in 2012.

Simon Lee gave the sermon on 4 August 2014 in Great St Mary’s at the Cambridge service to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War [5]

On the 26th January 2016 Liverpool Hope University presented Professor Lee, its former Rector & Chief Executive Professor Simon Lee with an honorary degree in recognition of

his time as Rector & Chief Executive of Liverpool Hope University College from 1995-2003. During this time, he proposed the name ‘Hope’, the development of the Creative Campus at Everton, and the pioneering Network of Hope partnership. He suggested ‘educating the whole person’ to sum up Liverpool Hope, adding ‘in mind, body and spirit.’ https://www.hope.ac.uk/news/newsitems/honorarydegreeforformerliverpoolhoperectorchiefexecutive.html

In his citation Dr Ian Vandewalle, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Liverpool hope University made the following observation about the contribution of Professor Lee to the University and more widely to society, including the following observations:

"He is a highly acclaimed academic winning scholarships to Oxford and Yale; he has held lectureships at Trinity College, Oxford and King’s College, London, was professor of Jurisprudence at Queen’s, Belfast and continues to add to his series of academic positions. Professor Lee is also author of several books exploring a range of moral and ethical dilemmas. However, his latest publication, Vincent’s 1863-2013, is a change of direction; here, Professor Lee continues Woodgate’s nineteenth century quest to celebrate the great sporting heroes of Vincent’s Club, Oxford…with a foreword by Sir Roger Bannister. You will gather from this, that Professor Lee is a keen sportsman: He chaired the John Paul II Foundation for Sport, launched by Pope Benedict XVI, Chaired the professional Rugby Club, Carnegie in Leeds, and Chaired Podium that co-ordinated the activities of the universities and colleges in support of the 2012 London Olympics: He played football with students and staff at Hope and has also recently been elected Captain of Middleton Stoney Cricket Club.

Professor Lee has served on numerous public and private Boards, ranging from the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights, and the National Standards Task Force, within the Department for Education, to The Everyman & Playhouse Theatres, the Northern Ballet Theatre, as well as the Leeds Teaching Hospitals Charitable Foundation.

And of course, we must not forget his contribution to the peace process in Northern Ireland, co-founding Initiative ’92, which gave voice to the ordinary people of Northern Ireland, and formed the back-drop to the Opsahl Commission of 1993.

Those who have read the citation in the programme will get a real sense of the man: a dynamic and principled leader who has dedicated much of his time and talents to the public good.

Well he gave us our name: Hope…a name that is open to both secular and sacred interpretations …and based on Professor Lee’s fervent belief that Education, particularly higher education is a hugely liberating force, bringing Hope to all who can access it;

He gave us our address: Hope Park, Liverpool…which he noted should have the feel of a village estate…and should be as beautiful as possible;

He significantly enhanced our reputation, gaining for Hope, the Freedom of the City of Liverpool and a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for the work of Hope One World (now known as Global Hope, where, each year, our staff and students spend their summer break helping those less fortunate in developing countries around the world)

He opened, what was then, probably the first internet café outside of London, called Hope on the Waterfront, in the Albert Dock, to be a learning laboratory, with touch-screen TVs…to link to our academic programmes….a concept that was years ahead of its time.

In his inexhaustible quest to widen access to Higher Education, he established the Network of Hope, delivering degree programmes to students in 6th form colleges, that shared our common vision, across the North West, and of course, these still operate today, having seen hundreds of students graduate who perhaps would not normally have accessed the university system

He also established the Creative Campus, in Everton, then, one of the poorest wards in the country, and supported the REACHOut programme to deliver our degrees locally, where the students were able to study.

He insisted on Foundation Hour; an hour, formalised in the timetable, where we stop to reflect on the bigger questions of life, and which, we still observe today. Indeed, we have now extended this to include Foundation Day, which we celebrated yesterday

What is more, Professor Lee also engendered the very philosophies of this University…’education of the whole person in mind, body and spirit’…creating fully rounded graduates who, with confidence, can take their place on the world’s stage: and so at Hope, we still speak of ‘Educating in the Round"

Http://www.hope.ac.uk/news/newsitems/celebrationscontinueatwintergraduation.html

Early life

Lee attended school in Gillingham before winning the highly coveted Brackenbury scholarship to read Jurisprudence at Balliol College, Oxford, where in 1977 he won the Sweet & Maxwell Prize for the University of Oxford Best Distinction in Law Moderations, in 1978 the Winter Williams Essay Prize and in 1979 took first class honours. He then attended Yale Law School studying for the LLM as a Harkness Fellow. Harkness Fellowships were funded by the Harkness family foundation, the Commonwealth Fund of New York, and were set up by Edward Harkness - a major benefactor on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1925 the Fund's Board issued the following Statement; "...International understanding can be forwarded in no more practicable way than through the provision of international opportunities for education and travel to young men and women of character and ability. Such men and women, potentially leaders in their own country, becoming familiar through residence and education with the institutions, customs and ways of thinking of the people of another country, cannot but be a force for mutual understanding and good feeling. Secondly, the importance of unity of thought and purpose on the part of the two great English speaking nations of the world lends a special value to reciprocal educational opportunities in the two countries..." <The Harkness Fellows Association>

Career

Having taught law at Trinity College, Oxford, and then King's College London, in 1989 at the age of only 31 he was appointed Professor of Jurisprudence at Queen’s University, Belfast. Dean Godson, in Himself Alone, his 2004 (HarperCollins) biography of David Trimble (who went on to become First Minister of Northern Ireland and to win the Nobel Peace Prize), wrote that Lee's appointment in the 1988 at the age of 31 to the chair of jurisprudence at Queen's University Belfast, ahead of the insider candidate David Trimble, was because he was a 'superstar' academic 'with good media credentials' (p. 93). He then became a regular commentator on BBC television and radio in Northern Ireland and in the press.

Whilst at Queen's he co-founded, with Robin Wilson, Initiative ‘92, "A citizens’ inquiry" through which opinions were sought across the Northern Ireland community and political parties on ways forward and was chaired by Professor Torkel Opsahl from Norway. This encouraged community groups and individuals to think and discuss the options for the future in a way that had been unimaginable before. Consequently, the wider community "began to have greater confidence in putting forward its views and engaging with the political process and politicians from whom it had felt alienated for so long" <Conciliation Resources>. "It was increasingly clear that he combined a passion for his faith with a deep commitment to education, ecumenism, peace, and partnership" <citation for Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Virginia Theological Seminary 2011, www.VTS.edu 2011>. On his return from Queen's Professor Lee became a Gresham Professor of Law (1995-1998) following in the footsteps of thinkers across arts & sciences, such as Sir Christopher Wren. Lee's immediate predecessor in law was Sir David Calcutt QC.

From 1995 to 2003 Lee was Chief Executive and Rector of Liverpool Hope University. Within weeks of Professor Simon Lee being appointed Rector in 1995, the LIHE community and the Governing Council had agreed a new name, Hope, and a new mission statement – "Educating the whole person in mind, body and spirit" <Liverpool Hope University www.hope.ac.uk/alumni/welcome/history-of-liverpool-hope> Hope became the first college in the UK to secure degree-awarding powers under the government’s new system. Lee's leadership of this ecumenical church college is discussed in a book of essays, The Foundation of Hope, edited by R John Elford and published by Liverpool University Press in 2003. At Liverpool Hope, he served under the late Lord Bishop David Sheppard, who described him as a person of "flair and imagination". At this time, led by Lee, Hope was at the forefront of urban renewal (in particular the Arts Centre in Everton, Liverpool) and the arts (he chaired the Everyman and Playhouse Theatres). Hope won the Freedom of the City of Liverpool and a Queen's Anniversary Prize for the work of Hope One World with Tibetan refugee children in Ladakh. "And all of these connections were born out of his sense of call to service as a Christian and a Roman Catholic. This faith disposition has also characterized his scholarship. He is the author of some eight books, one of which, Believing Bishops, was credited as the text that anticipated the rising star of Archbishop George Carey, before he was made Archbishop. Lee has written extensively on medical ethics; his book, Uneasy Ethics, was highly acclaimed for the imaginative way in which the complex fields of ethics and law are woven together. Today he is continuing to create partnership opportunities for organizations. He is the chair of a new charity inaugurated by Pope Benedict XVI called the John Paul II Foundation For Sport. From Burnley Football Club to the University of Oxford, he is linking sport with education. The result of all these partnerships is to build stronger links between educational institutions, businesses, and the community". <Citation, www.VTS.edu 2011>.

After eight years, and after Hope had gained university college status, Lee left to become vice-chancellor in 2003 of Leeds Metropolitan University, sometimes known as Carnegie (after the teacher training college for physical education of that name, now incorporated into Leeds Met). In his inaugural lecture at Leeds Met, entitled Beyond Boundaries, he quoted a 19th-century English college principal as saying that students should be able to drink from a 'running stream' of insights, a curriculum informed by research, rather than from a 'stagnant pool' and announced a focus on sporting and cultural partnerships, a policy adopted by the Board of Governors and put into award-winning effect.[3][9]

He announced in the inaugural lecture that the university would develop a Rose Bowl behind the Civic Hall which duly happened (it won the Design & Innovation category at the RICS Pro-Yorkshire Awards 2010 and "best new venue to the property industry" <Conference Leeds>) together with other award-winning estate developments he initiated. The partnership with Leeds Rugby resulted in the rugby and cricket stadium becoming an extension of the Headingley campus, with its Carnegie Stand for rugby giving the University's Carnegie campus a permanent base at the Stadium. The Carnegie Stand incorporates 12 classrooms and tripled the number of disabled spaces formerly available at Headingley Carnegie Stadium. Of the Carnegie Pavilion and Media Centre for cricket at the stadium, designed by Will Alsop, "The new Carnegie Pavilion is the first of its kind - a real dual-use building giving university students and sporting professionals access to state of the art shared space. We believe it will be another iconic building for Leeds and Yorkshire." The Carnegie Pavilion replaced the existing YCCC media and player facilities at Headingley Carnegie Stadium and enables the venue to continue to host international fixtures. The £21m Carnegie Pavilion project was supported by Yorkshire Forward, Leeds council, HSBC, The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Sport England. In the annual Times Higher Awards 2006, the University won the category of Outstanding Contribution by a University to the Local Community, for its work with Bradford City Football Club and the local Muslim community in Manningham, and silver for the overall University of the Year. In 2007, the University won national awards for Arts & Business, for its partnership with Northern Ballet, and for being the most environmentally friendly university in the country, in the inaugural league table compiled by the green action group, People & Planet. In 2008, the university won the bidding process for The UK Centre of Coaching Excellence through to the 2016 Olympics and the national award for the best coaching environment of any organization in the country. In 2009, the University came 3rd in the BUCS league table for all UK university sport, having risen from 27th during his leadership. . Lee replaced the university's previous owl logo with a Yorkshire rose.

During Vice-Chancellor Lee's time at Leeds Met[5] a dispute between a "whistle-blower" and the previous administration at the university was pursued by Fabian Hamilton MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom[6] A case was made resulting in a statement delivered to Parliament on 21 July 2004 by Leeds MP Fabian Hamilton[6] on the "disturbing" practices which were endured by staff and students who had cause to resort to the internal complaints procedure. This has sometimes been misleadingly linked to Simon Lee as the issues in question pre-date his tenure as Vice-Chancellor.

It is alleged from the student newspaper and the Times Higher's chronology that he fell out with the chair of governors, Ninian Watt. Lee resigned in 2009.

The chairman of the governors acknowledged that Lee had transformed the university and left it "financially stable and sustainable".[10] However, Lee's temporary successor as Chief Executive, Dr Geoff Hitchins, has said that Lee's "low-charging, high-impact" policy on student fees did not make sense and had cost the university £10 million. He also believed that the decision to charge such low fees had disadvantaged its students because of the resulting large class sizes, though no evidence has ever been produced to support this notion.[11]

The Times Higher Education reported Lee as saying that "the real reason for the dispute was his ongoing argument with Mr Watt over whether Leeds Met should raise tuition fees".[14] Mr Watt ordered an independent review of expenses which reported in September 2009 but the auditors "found no evidence of wrongdoing by Professor Lee, his wife Patricia or senior managers".[9]

Personal life

He married Patricia McNulty in 1982. They have a twin son and daughter (born 1983) and a daughter (born 1984).