Representatives of the University of Kent and its Tizard Centre were presented with a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education by the Queen during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Thursday 27 February.
The Prize, the University’s second in six years, was for the work of the Tizard Centre and its contribution to improving the lives of people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) and their families. The Centre is part of the University’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research.
The Queen’s Anniversary Prizes are awarded, within the honours system, for exceptional contributions by institutions in the higher and further education sectors.
Attending the presentation by the Queen were: Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow, Vice-Chancellor of the University: Tony Quigley, Chair of the University’s Finance and Resources Committee; Professor Glynis Murphy and Professor Peter McGill, Co-Directors of the Tizard Centre; Dr Jill Bradshaw, Lecturer in Learning Disability; research staff Aida Malovic, Lisa Richardson and Agnes Turnpenny; and PhD students Rebecca Hardiman and Precious Nwosisi.
Dame Julia said: ‘I am delighted that the Tizard Centre should receive such an accolade. It is a tribute to the outstanding work of the staff and students at the Centre and to the difference they make to the lives of people with disabilities and their families.’
In a joint statement the Centre’s Co-Directors, Professor Glynis Murphy and Professor Peter McGill, said: ‘We are very honoured to receive such a prestigious award. The Prize not only acknowledges the work of both the staff and students at the Centre, it reflects the legacy of its founder, the late Professor Jim Mansell.
‘It is also recognition at the highest level that people with IDD deserve the best possible quality of life. All too frequently, they are at a real disadvantage in society with nine out of ten experiencing disability hate crime. We hope this award signals the need for a step change by policy-makers and the wider society.’
The Tizard Centre has an international reputation for its cutting-edge research and practice. For more than 30 years, it has trained hundreds of practitioners through distinctive practice-based undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and regularly advises government on issues relating to challenging and offending behaviour, profound multiple disability and sexual abuse among people with IDD. The Centre’s impact is world-wide, extending to East and Central Europe, where it has undertaken vital work on ‘deinstitutionalisation’, as well as to Ireland, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.