News

New VC lays down plans for Queen's Campus, Stockton

(6 June 2007)

New chief outlines his plans for and commitment to Queen's Campus, Stockton.

Professor Chris Higgins, Durham's new Vice Chancellor, is undertaking his first official engagement at Queen's Campus, Stockton to discuss its future and to congratulate some of the region’s future doctors on completing the first stage of their medical degree on Tuesday 5 June 2007. Professor Higgins, who previously was Professor at Oxford and then directed a trailblazing London-based medical research institute, will outline his commitment to Stockton, to students, staff and parents attending the event. He said: “Queen’s Campus, Stockton is critical to the long-term mission of Durham University. The campus is particularly important in ensuring the university is one of the key leaders of regeneration, working together with the region, and Tees Valley in particular. “Since it opened in 1992, Queen’s Campus has developed a reputation for excellent research and teaching, offering the people of Tees Valley access to a world class university on their own doorstep, with admission options for those from non-traditional backgrounds. It also attracts students and researchers from all over the UK and overseas, who contribute significantly to the local economy. Its research in areas such as public health and regeneration has a strong impact on the local area, while its medical course, with its focus on case-led and patient engagement is providing new generations of much-needed doctors for the region.” The new Vice-Chancellor intends to develop Queen’s by building an academic strategy to tie into the development of the campus, looking at a range of options for expansion including the North Shore. The university is also backing this up with by creating a new senior position at the university with particular responsibility for strategy in the North-East and Queen’s Campus in particular. This new Pro-Vice-Chancellor will build more bridges between the university and key players in the region in industry, business, health and development. Joe Docherty, Chief Executive of Tees Valley Regeneration, said: "Durham University's Queen's Campus in Stockton not only provides world-class education for the people of the Tees Valley, it also plays a crucial role in the area’s economic growth. “Tees Valley Regeneration are working closely with the university on a number of initiatives including the potential expansion of the campus on to our North Shore development, and I look forward to continuing to work with Professor Higgins and his colleagues in the future" Brother and sister medics, Brett and Stephanie Main from Hamsterley Mill, near Rowlands Gill, are the first generation to go to university in their family and are in the first and second year of their courses respectively. Stephanie, 20, who has taught piano since the age of 16 to help support herself through her studies said: “It’s been a childhood dream of mine to become a doctor. It’s a combination of enjoying maths and science and liking caring for people which has drawn me towards medicine.” Her brother Brett, 18, who joined his sister at Queen’s Campus from St Thomas More School in Blaydon, in October last year commented: “The taster course I went on while still at school really gave me a feel of student life, a great insight into the community focus and patient-led approach on the Durham University course. Stephanie and I get on well and it’s useful to have her as back up when I get stuck with my revising as she’s already been through it.” Mother of two, Mary Parker, 44, from Billingham is swapping a lucrative career as an NHS accountant to retrain as a doctor. Mary, who originally studied for an English Literature and Language degree explains her move: “Even though I originally studied the arts I’ve always been fascinated by how the human body and mind works and when I was working for the NHS as an accountant this interest deepened. I was working on a large-scale financial level but craved the individual attention that doctors offered patients. Once my daughters were both at school I seized the opportunity to go back to study – I really felt like it was now or never.” The Middlesbrough Primary Care Trust offered Mary a bursary to help support her financially through her studies, which she started after completing the foundation course at Durham’s Queen’s Campus and helped her build up her scientific knowledge and get on to the medical course. Stephanie and Mary are just two of 102 Durham University Medicine students who have come to the end of the first two years of their medical education at Queen’s Campus, Stockton and are now moving on to complete the second phase at Newcastle University, marked by a special event where they will be congratulated by the new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Higgins and Dean of Medicine, Professor Pali Hungin. The university delivers its medical education in partnership with NHS Hospitals, general practices and public health units in Tees Valley. Its training is designed to help students respect and relate well to patients and colleagues from a wide range of backgrounds, maintaining the person centred approach to medicine in their future careers.