Les Jervis, associate dean of science at Plymouth University, set out to be a research scientist, but teaching and administration came to overshadow his research.

Dr Jervis opposes any policy that splits teaching and research. ¡°Being an excellent teacher is not enough in higher education, any more than being an excellent researcher is,¡± he said. ¡°Keeping up to date in any subject requires more than reading the literature - it demands active involvement in subject development.¡±

After graduation in the late 1960s, Dr Jervis became a government biochemist for three years before moving to Paisley College. He won the college¡¯s first research grant from the Science Research Council.

Dr Jervis then moved to Plymouth Polytechnic as head of biology.

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¡°I was naive,¡± Dr Jervis said. ¡°I thought I would be an academic leader with a high level of research activity. But in a polytechnic, management was the name of the game.¡±

For three years his time was taken up with administration, and he had no opportunity to teach or research. ¡°I had lost any contact with research, was out of date in the literature and had had nothing published for three years. I couldn¡¯t get a grant.¡±

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In 2001, he won a ?50,000 national teaching fellowship, which allowed him to get back into research. ¡°The fellowship has been genuinely liberating,¡± Dr Jervis said. ¡°It has given me time to develop successful research proposals and get back into the lab. This has already led to improvements in practical work for my students.¡±

Dr Jervis is the son of a miner and a mill worker, he grew up on a northern council estate, and he was the first person in his family to go to university.

¡°I¡¯m not sure I would have been prepared to face the levels of debt that I see working-class students

[and others] facing now,¡± he said. ¡°It was difficult enough to start a career without the debt burden.¡±

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