Celebrating four decades of history at Teesside University

Four decades of history teaching at Teesside University will be marked with a celebratory event on Saturday 28 September.

The celebration also pays tribute to Professor Tony Pollard, described as the 'founding father' of the institution’s history department.

Professor Pollard is a leading authority on Late Medieval history, specialising in North-Eastern England during the War of the Roses. Although retired from the University, he retains links as Emeritus Professor and is a member of the University’s Centre for Regional and Local Historical Research.

Margaret Hems, one of Tony’s former students and now Head of History at Teesside University, said: 'It's both a celebration of the success of history as a subject at Teesside University and a perfect opportunity to celebrate the career of Professor Tony Pollard, who played a fundamental role in establishing history as a degree subject at Teesside.

'Since 1973, history provision at Teesside has gone from strength to strength. History is one of the high profile research units within the University, with a well established reputation for research excellence and scholarship.

'The research profile which Professor Pollard led during his long career at Teesside has a recognised and international reputation. In addition, the high quality of the taught history degree programmes has gained an excellent reputation since it was established 40 years ago. The department has gained consistently high student satisfaction rates in the National Student Survey, achieving 100 percent in recent years.'

Margaret added: 'Thousands of students have benefited from studying at Teesside and have gone on to have successful careers.

'There will be many graduates who Professor Pollard worked with, who will want to join us to celebrate. We have invited all former history students who are members of the alumni but would like to extend the invitation to those history graduates who we have lost touch with.'

Former Teesside history graduates wanting to attend the celebration at the University on Saturday 28 September can contact Francesca Angus on 01642 384019 or email arts@tees.ac.uk.

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