Forthcoming Autobiography

The journey

I was born into a non-academic family living in Willesden in inner London. I won a scholarship to an independent school, Latymer Upper, in the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. I then went on to study Geography at University College London (UCL) where I entered and won its annual essay prize for research on the influence of land ownership on the residential growth of inner Northwest London and its subsequent social structure. On graduation in 1965, I was recruited by the renowned urban economic geographer Peter Hall to join him at the London School of Economics (LSE) to undertake a PhD on the dynamics of office development in Central London. At an early stage in my research work, Peter gave me access and insights to the worlds of policy and practise that were to lay the foundations of my future career.

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A decade later, I accepted a research chair at Newcastle University where I established the multi-disciplinary Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS) in 1977. Three years later, CURDS was awarded the status of Designated Research Centre or ‘centre of excellence’ by the then Social Science Research Council (SSRC). For more details see 'A History of CURDS' (PDF)

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On becoming Deputy Vice Chancellor (DVC) of the University in 2001, I was charged with translating our studies of regional innovation into the implementation of a major restructure of Newcastle University designed to make it a more open, more entrepreneurial, and regionally engaged institution. Reflecting this, Newcastle’s mission statement became, “to be a world-class research-led higher education institution contributing to the economic, social and cultural development of the North East of England”.

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I contributed to place making capacity in the city and region by linking the University to the newly established Regional Development Agency (RDA), to local government, to business and to the community, voluntary and cultural sectors. Working with others I built on the Newcastle and North East experience as a ‘living laboratory’, seeking to shape UK policy from the bottom up through reports, speeches and international work with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Commission.

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On my official retirement in 2008 I sought to codify my learning on the role that universities could play in city and regional development in two academic publications - one looking into the university from the outside and the other on the internal institutional change needed to maximise civic engagement. These, together with a NESTA provocation, ‘Re-inventing the Civic University’ (PDF), influenced the establishment of the UK Civic University Commission led by Lord (Bob) Kerslake and where I acted as Vice Chair. Its report, ‘Truly Civic: Strengthening the connection between universities and their places’ (PDF), was published in 2019 attracting support from all sides of the political spectrum and which led to my part time appointment as Professor of Universities and Cities in the University of Birmingham alongside my ongoing position as Emeritus Professor at Newcastle University.

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I then advised and assisted the establishment of the follow-on Civic University Network (CUN) with its hub at Sheffield Hallam University (where I am visiting professor) and the subsequent National Civic Impact Accelerator (NCIA) programme that continues to champion the civic university movement worldwide. 

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Listen to more on this podcast and in an extended edition about the history of civic universities. 

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I received an OBE in 1986, the Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1992, was elected an Honorary Fellow of UCL in 2010, the Sir Peter Hall Award of the Regional Studies Association in 2011, the Lord Dearing Lifetime Achievement Award for Higher Education in 2012 and was elected to the Academia Europaea in 2015. In 2018, I was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Hasselt University, Belgium, in recognition of the impact my work had had on shaping the university’s future direction.  The citation noted that, “In the past year, UHasselt has reflected extensively on where it comes from and where it is going. Professor Goddard’s work proved to be an invaluable inspiration throughout that process.”