Obituary: Sir Raymond Rickett

Raymond Rickett was driven by a vision of an educational system that would encourage people from all backgrounds and all walks of life to participate.

After a career which led from a lectureship in Chemistry at Liverpool College of Technology to vice-provostship of City of London Polytechnic, he became Director of Middlesex Polytechnic at its inception in 1972 and remained there until his retirement in 1991.

He was a great champion of the polytechnics (created in 1967 largely out of the old technical colleges), but believed strongly that the binary system of universities and polytechnics was divisive; he campaigned strongly for its end, which happened in 1992, when polytechnics were given university status.

Rickett had no tradition of family involvement in higher education; an ex-serviceman's grant took him after National Service in the Navy to Medway Technical College in 1953. It was there and at Illinois Institute of Technology, where he took his PhD in Physical Chemistry, that he laid the foundations of his vision.

He then held positions at Plymouth College of Technology, West Ham College of Technology, Wolverhampton College of Technology, and Sir John Cass College, which became City of London Polytechnic. At Middlesex, in the face of some traditional academic reluctance, he successfully promoted the educational ideas he had developed. These included modular degrees and credit accumulation (being able to study several subjects in one degree for which credits are accumulated and which are transferable between comparable institutions), giving access to a wider range of the community (through part-time degrees etc) and founding links across international boundaries with joint European degrees.

From the beginning of his directorship Rickett played a large role in raising public awareness of the work going on in the polytechnics, through his many committees, and in advocating that polytechnics should be allowed to award their own degrees. This was achieved in 1992; before that the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) awarded all polytechnic degrees.

Externally, Rickett made monumental efforts to gain recognition for the work of the new polytechnics as a whole and Middlesex in particular. He sat on all the major external committees: the Committee of Polytechnic Directors, of which he was twice chairman, the UK Unesco Educational Advisory Committee, the Committee for International Co-operation in Higher Education, the UK Erasmus Student Grants Council, the British Council and the CNAA, of which he was chairman till its demise. Only gradually did the sounds of these battles filter through to the staff at Middlesex who were managing changes and fulfilling their continuing educational roles.

Internally, Rickett sowed the seeds of his ideas, encouraged staff to address them and develop means to implement them. His was not an insinuating style, but one of direct forceful challenge. We all as staff had to consider whether our ideas and ways were comfortably fixed because of habit or whether they were a still valid part of the living dynamic of education.

Where Rickett saw innovation, excellence and care he publicly and privately acknowledged it. He took an acute interest in the work of the schools of study, and frequently surprised the staff of the Faculty of Art and Design by his spontaneous perception of quality - not always apparent in the medley of degree shows. He asked questions, such as what the future of education should be - even sending individual members of staff off for days to consider the subject - and eventually suggested answers. He relished debate, offended sometimes, inspired often. Whatever emotional response one had there was never any denying Rickett's massive grasp of his subject.

In the Seventies and Eighties, the fact that the level of work in polytechnics was largely equivalent to that in universities was not widely known, either abroad - as those of us commissioned to make contacts in foreign institutions discovered - or, more disturbingly, among a considerable percentage of British Members of Parliament, as a survey showed.

Rickett fought for equal funding for equal levels of work and early on declared his determination to "get rid of the binary divide". This was a cause close to the heart of my father Lord Robbins, chairman of the Committee on Higher Education in 1961-63, whose report was known as the Robbins Report. The creation of a binary system had gone radically against the majority recommendations of the committee, in which he was a fervent believer. He and Rickett realised the deleterious effect on the careers of young people of a system that encouraged ignorant, snobbish distinctions to be drawn without any meaningful differences existing. They discussed the problem and its implications on a number of occasions.

On retirement, Rickett saw the fruits of his endeavours in this sphere fulfilled. Middlesex Polytechnic became Middlesex University. Internally, its original constituent colleges of Hornsey, Enfield and Hendon (on many different sites) had grown and developed.

His interests spread beyond the institution and its work. He keenly followed the fortunes of Kent cricket, and loved to play himself. He played golf to a modest standard, but with a great degree of essential sportsmanship. His involvement with the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now scheme was conducted with the same enthusiasm and concern that he devoted to all the activities he undertook.

When he retired from Middlesex he became Chairman of the newly formed Mid-Kent Health Care Trust. Here, in meetings and discussions, he set about making the connections he felt would best develop the involvement of all staff in the new situation and acknowledge their importance.

His wife, Naomi, and their three children acted as the firm base which is so necessary as a recreation from and springboard for such an active public involvement, and provided a space for the conception and growth of ideas which his hugely active outside life thrived on. Their home, The Barn, in Molash, Kent, bought relatively recently, was a marvellous theatre for thought with its high space and centuries-old structure.

Raymond Rickett was unsophisticated and unpretentious. He enjoyed the ordinary things in life - a trip to Whitstable where he had grown up, his boyhood haunts, his golf club, his favourite sea-bathing spot. He was a warm, courteous person with a formidable presence and awesome energy, who devoted his life to helping people make the most of themselves.

The memory of his unquenchable, "indestructable" energy and involvement will remain with all who knew him. His heart was always the dominant force of his understanding.

Richard Robbins

Raymond Mildmay Wilson Rickett, educationist: born London 17 March 1927; Lecturer, Liverpool College of Technology 1960-62; Senior Lecturer/Principal Lecturer, West Ham College of Technology 1962-64; Head of Department, Wolverhampton College of Technology 1965-66; Vice-Principal, Sir John Cass College 1967-69; Vice-Provost, City of London Polytechnic 1969-72; Director, Middlesex Polytechnic 1972-91; CBE 1984; Kt 1990; Chairman, Mid-Kent Health Care Trust 1992-96; married 1958 Naomi Nishida (one son, two daughters); died London 6 April 1996.