Paul White obituary
My father, Paul White, who has died aged 74, spent his working life at the University of Sheffield, starting in 1974 as a lecturer in the geography department and ending as deputy vice-chancellor.
His career may have been based at Sheffield, but it encompassed a truly international outlook. With interests including migration, demographic change and social exclusion, he carried out research covering a huge range of topics, including tourism in rural Switzerland, Japanese communities in London, social segregation in European cities and perceptions of rurality in China.
Teaching and improving the student experience were his real passions. As professor of European geography from 1997 until his retirement in 2016, he passed on his enthusiasm for other cultures to his students, including through field classes to Paris and Berlin. He was a highly valued PhD supervisor, overseeing more than 36, and was passionate about teaching students to find out and think for themselves. In 2004 he became pro vice-chancellor for learning and teaching, and embarked on a mission to improve teaching quality.
He was a leader in higher education policy, too, both nationally and internationally. He chaired the Russell Group's learning and teaching network, and the learning and teaching group of the Worldwide Universities Network, an alliance of 17 universities across four continents. For nine years he was a member of the all-party parliamentary group on higher education and, in retirement, supported a number of universities with their quality inspections. In all of these activities, his focus was on ways to drive up teaching quality. He was appointed OBE for services to higher education in 2016 and was awarded an honorary degree from Sheffield University in 2022.
He also took great pleasure in his roles as vice-chair of the trustee board of Sheffield Student Union, and in leading citizenship ceremonies as a deputy lieutenant for South Yorkshire.
Born in Luton, the son of Cyril White, who worked in printing, and Ethel (nee Ellis), Paul moved with his family at the age of five to Twickenham, south-west London. His success in the 11-plus led to a direct grant place at Latymer Upper school in Hammersmith. A degree and PhD in geography at Hertford College, Oxford, followed. It was during this period that he met Liz Taylor, a teacher of Italian, whom he married in 1973.
Music played a very important role in my father's life. He played the piano to a high standard and loved opera, particularly visits to Glyndebourne. He took particular joy from playing music with others, especially family members. He loved exploring foreign cities, continuing to travel widely after retirement, and enjoyed walking – including one expedition on foot in 2017 from Sheffield to visit the homes of me and my sister, Helen, in London, a distance of 215 miles, which he completed in 17 days.
He is survived by Liz, Helen and me, and two grandchildren, Toby and Alice.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald Scotland
21 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Historic photos show D-Day landings, turning point of WWII
The plan for the attack across the English Channel was put in motion at the Tehran Conference in 1943, where Allied leaders chose American general Dwight Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander for the operation. Omaha Beach, the second to the west of the five landing beaches, saw the bloodiest fighting of the battle, with American forces seeing 2,400 casualties - according to Encyclopedia Brittanica. The invasion marked the turning point in the European theater, as Paris would be liberated by the end of August, 1944 and Nazi Germany would surrender less than a year later, according to Here are historic photos from D-Day. See D-Day in historic photos From the USA TODAY Network: 'Welcome home': Iowan killed on D-Day to be buried on 81st anniversary of his death
The Herald Scotland
2 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Acclaimed Oxford scholar who never forgot his roots in Glasgow dies
Died: January 24, 2025 Martin McLaughlin, who died aged 74, was an esteemed Oxford University scholar who would gain a global reputation as a classicist and a literary historian. In Oxford, where his death has been borne heavily, he was a much-loved academic colleague who would become the Serena Agnelli Professor of Italian at Oxford, a position he would hold for 16 years. His contribution to the study of Italian language and literature made him one of the outstanding English-language scholars of his generation, a fact underlined in 2008 when was made a knight by the Italian government. To all whose lives he touched and were made better for his love and friendship he remained entirely unchanged as he began amassing a formidable suite of academic honours. His brother Aidan remarked: 'If Oxford changed him utterly as a scholar, a lecturer and a writer, it never succeeded at all in changing him as a person, a husband, a father, a grandfather, a brother, an uncle, great uncle and cousin. To us he remained the same Martino.' They recall the boy who took his younger sisters and their friends to play tennis at the convent in Portstewart, and had everyone pause mid-game when the Angelus bell rang so as not to upset the nuns. He was the big brother who took them to big games at Parkhead to see his beloved Celtic and bought them fish suppers on the way home. They remembered the son, brother and uncle who loved family get-togethers and had time for a story or chat with everyone from the oldest to the youngest. And while he could discuss any subject you cared to raise with him, they would all conclude with an assessment of Celtic's chances the following Saturday. At their silver wedding in 1999 Martin revealed that whilst his beloved Cathy could put up with all of his idiosyncrasies, she had declared that if he developed a pot belly, she would divorce him. 'So I've started drinking ten pints a night,' he said. Read more In June 2008, Martin sent an email to his friends and family, headed simply 'Gong'. It read: 'Hi, you guys, just to say that the Italian government has decided, in its infinite wisdom, to give me a gong! I am to be made 'Commendatore dell'Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana', but you can all just call me 'Eccellenza' for short!' Martin McLaughlin was born in Glasgow on December 4, 1950, the second oldest of eight children born to George and Jo. He followed the family tradition of attending St Aloysius before making the short journey down Sauchiehall Street and Woodlands Road to Glasgow University. It was here where his remarkable intellectual gifts first became evident. His First in Latin and Greek earned him a Snell Bursary which bore him to Balliol College, Oxford in 1973. He flourished there too, earning a First in Classics and Modern Languages, the first time such a combination was possible. He then returned to Scotland to spend 13 enjoyable years as a lecturer in Italian at Edinburgh University, a period in which he also managed to fit in a tidy doctorate by Oxford in 1983. Before long, England's academic Holy of Holies was beckoning him back and he duly made the journey to the south east of England in 1990 to become a lecturer. Professor McLaughlin's love for Italian literature was expressed in a formidable body of work as both translator and writer, specialising in authors who span both ends of Italian literature: Alberti who was one of the earliest writers in the Italian vernacular in the mid-1400s and Italo Calvino, perhaps the most famous 20th century Italian author. His books on these figures made him the leading English-language authority on Calvino. During his time at Oxford, his students and colleagues also began to experience his innate warmth and humanity. As news of his death spread, Professor McLaughlin's Facebook page began to thrum with messages and anecdotes from grateful students and colleagues. He was slightly whimsical about some of the odder Oxford traditions – for example the £200 annual sherry allowance granted to him to enable his tutorials to proceed in what he termed 'a well-oiled manner'. In 2000, on moving from Christchurch (alma mater of Lewis Carroll) to Magdalen, Oscar Wilde's old redoubt, he told anyone who would listen that, having reached the age of 50, the time had arrived for him to leave the college of Alice In Wonderland to move to that of Dorian Gray. Acclaimed Oxford scholar he may have become, but Martin McLaughlin never forgot his roots in Glasgow. Several times a year he would be back amongst the family on visits which usually coincided with an important Celtic fixture. The family's long-time family friend, Evelyn Connolly, wrote this about him recently: 'It was easy to be in his company.' Martin McLaughlin bequeathed a mighty academic legacy, but to his friends and family he left something greater still: a treasury of happy memories of his love and friendship. He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Cathy, his daughter Mairi, herself a noted scholar and professor at Berkeley University California, his granddaughter Iona and the now far-flung McLaughlin family. At The Herald, we carry obituaries of notable people from the worlds of business, politics, arts and sport but sometimes we miss people who have led extraordinary lives. That's where you come in. If you know someone who deserves an obituary, please consider telling us about their lives. Contact
The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- The Herald Scotland
Why are teachers considering striking over teaching time?
What is class contact time? This refers to the time that teachers actually spend in class with students. Leaving aside the fact that almost all teachers work well beyond the hours they are paid for, the teaching working week is supposed to last for 35 hours – but that doesn't mean that teachers are delivering lessons for the whole of that time. Instead, the expectation is that teachers are timetabled for 22.5 hours of class contact time per week. Is contact time particularly high in Scotland? Yes. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), contact time in Scottish schools is very high in comparison to comparable countries. The 'net teaching time' for Scotland is given as 855 hours per year. The only OECD countries with higher figures for high school teachers are Chile, Costa Rica, and the United States. Mexico has a slightly higher contact time figure for teachers in lower-secondary, but a lower figure than Scotland for those in upper-secondary. Read More The picture is a little more complex at primary level. In Scotland, contact time is the same across both sectors but that isn't true for most countries. Countries including the Netherlands and Ireland have higher primary class contact levels than Scotland. However, contact time in Scotland is far higher than in countries like Estonia (the current top-performing European nation in PISA international league tables), Austria, Finland, Germany, Korea, Norway, Poland, Portugal and more. Why is high contact time a problem? As the impending EIS strike ballot makes clear, Scotland's very high level of class contact time is a workload issue for teachers, who have a weekly allocation of 12.5 hours in which to carry out all of the work that underpins good teaching and makes effective education possible. This includes, but is not limited to, marking, feedback, planning, professional development, safeguarding and more. Where sufficient non-teaching time isn't available, lots of that essential work ends up happening in the evening and weekends, and some of it doesn't happen at all – and this has a negative, knock-on effect on young people. Teachers in Scotland have just 12.5 hours per week in order to complete all of those planning, marking, and other non-teaching tasks. Is contact time supposed to be coming down? It is. In their most recent manifesto the SNP promised to reduce class contact time by ninety minutes per week for all teachers. This would not, as some thought at the time, mean that pupils received less teaching time, but it would free up more space for teachers to carry out their professional tasks. The promise was seen as a major commitment by Scotland's teaching profession, and a key pledge from a party that was, and remains, under huge pressure over its handling of Scottish education. The lack of meaningful progress towards this goal led to teachers declaring a dispute several months ago, and has now prompted the EIS to ask members if they are willing to take industrial action in response. The ballot will open today on a consultative basis. If members vote to support strike action, the union will then seek to move towards a formal, binding ballot that would deliver a mandate for strike action. In the end, this could result in disruption for primary and secondary schools across Scotland.
