Ben Calvert

Dr Ben Calvert is the Vice Chancellor of the University of South Wales and has a CV which contains titles such as Course Leader, Head of Department, Dean of Faculty and more. But it’s surprising to think that as a young man, Ben was more interested in a career in music than academia.

“I wanted to be a rockstar,” said the Worcester alumnus, reflecting on a dream that saw him spend more time on stage than in the classroom. “I didn’t do very well in my A-Levels because I spent an awful lot of time rehearsing and playing gigs. After those exams, I took a year out to give it a proper go.”

Ben’s father was in the process of doing a Certificate of Education at what was then Worcester Teacher Training College, having started his career in the Royal Navy and working in a mine in Cornwall before moving into teaching.

Ben said: “One day, dad handed me a prospectus for Worcester and said, ‘you know, you’re not really being a rockstar, are you?, why don’t you look at this place I’m at?’, and that was how I came to study at Worcester! I was following in the footsteps of my dad.”

Ben enrolled at Worcester and did a three-year degree in Social Sciences.

“I’m going to be honest,” said Ben. “I hadn’t thrived in my O-Levels and A-Levels, but I truly thrived at Worcester. I was doing subjects I was fascinated by and it was brilliant. When I finished, I got a handwritten letter from my Sociology tutor, who congratulated me on getting a first. I still have it today.”

“I studied with a guy who’d joined the Army with one CSE to his name at the age of 16 and came to Worcester as a mature student. He’s now a Kings Counsel. Another was a huge music fan, so we got on well. He’s now a writer of horror fiction and he counts Slash from Guns n’ Roses as one of his fans. He has also had two films made based on his books which are on Netflix.”

“We had more colourful and interesting routes into university than people who’d just been successful at school. Worcester had this ability to take us in as base metal and turn us into gold, somehow!”

“We still go to the reunions there,  so we are all still invested in the place. When we started there were fewer than 2000 students, and to see how it has developed over the years is incredible. To see it shortlisted for University of the Year in the Times Higher Education Awards made me feel very, very proud,” he said.

Ben continued: “It’s the big one for universities, and it’s a tough process to get to this stage so the shortlisting is wonderful.”

After graduating, Ben was planning on doing a PGCE to go and teach primary school children, before a chance meeting in a Worcester record shop changed everything.

“I saw my former economics and history tutor in HMV,” he said. “This was long before the internet and social media, so we weren’t in regular contact. He said he had been trying to get in contact with me as he had a PhD studentship that he wanted me to apply for.”

It was the first set of funded PhD studentships that Worcester College of Higher Education, as was, had ever done. Ben applied for it and came back to do his PhD on the history of the financial press for another three years before entering teaching.

Ben taught at the University of Central England inBirmingham, in Plymouth and Gloucestershire before arriving at the University of South Wales.

He said: “I was teaching all kinds of media and cultural studies, and I actually did a lot of teaching around music, and the culture of it. I set up degrees in popular music and I became a Dean of the Faculty of Media, Arts, and Technology.”

While he never achieved his dream of becoming a rockstar, he has been responsible for giving others the best possible start in life on stage and screen, having set up degrees in TV production and radio production, mostly at the start of an era where media and cultural studies was having a massive boom.

Now, Ben Calvert is the Vice Chancellor of the University of South Wales, one of the largest institutions in Wales. It’s renowned for its practical, industry-linked courses and strong graduate employability, and is a passionate advocate for the power of education.

“Being in an environment where you meet different people, you have your views challenged, you develop yourself as your education teaches you a kind of humility. Through education your inquisitiveness and curiosity is rewarded. There’s also being able to do the fun things you want to do as well, and we shouldn’t forget that either!”

While Ben’s days of studying for his qualifications are far behind him, he has carried the ethos of the University with him ever since.

He credits it with shaping his sense of mission and purpose. He said: “At Worcester, I felt like a known entity. We did a survey for our students a few years go, and I put in a question which was very important to me from my time at Worcester, which was ‘do my tutors know my name?’, and I added that because it’s really very important.”

“That has stuck with me. Worcester taught me that talent comes in many forms and that a personal connection really matters,” he said.

Ben is coming to the end of his time at the University of South Wales and plans early retirement in April before taking a hard-earned break.

“I’m going to take some time out. I’m going to spend time decompressing what I’ve learned,” he said. “I’m still on a few boards and I’ll find a way of continuing to be of service to the sector, because I love it, but I’ll be contributing in a different way.”

Looking back, Ben said: I’ll always carry Worcester with me. It taught me that education isn’t just about knowledge, it’s about being seen, being valued and growing into who you’re meant to be.”