Princess Royal will visit Harper Adams University to mark special anniversary
The Princess Royal is to visit Shropshire's Harper Adams University this spring to help celebrate the 200-year anniversary of the man who gave it its name.
Princess Anne will attend a symposium at the university, near Newport, on May 2 in her role as its chancellor.
The symposium on 'Technology's role in feeding the commonwealth' will be hosted by the university and the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth (RASC), and will be followed by a ceremony at St Nicholas' Church in Newport to mark 200 years since the birth of Thomas Harper Adams.
At the university, the princess will meet staff and students, representatives of the RASC, agricultural machinery manufacturer AGCO and Strathmore University Business School in Nairobi, Kenya, before hearing a keynote speech by Dr George Njenga, dean of the business school.
Harper Adams has helped to develop the first junior management trainee programme for the agricultural sector in Africa, based at Strathmore University. The Strathmore business school, in partnership with AGCO Corporation, has launched the AGCO Agribusiness Qualification Programme (AAQ).
At the church ceremony, the princess will formally receive the university’s coat of arms before a number of honorary awards are presented to mark the bicentenary of the birth of the university’s founding benefactor.
Thomas Harper Adams was a wealthy Shropshire gentleman farmer. When he died in 1892, he bequeathed his estate "for the purpose of teaching practical and theoretical agriculture".
Nine years later, in 1901, Harper Adams Agricultural College opened, with just six students. Now, 117 years on, Harper Adams has more than 2,800 undergraduate students, plus postgraduate, research and short course cohorts.
Vice-chancellor Dr David Llewellyn said: “The exact date of birth of Thomas Harper Adams isn’t known, but records show he was baptised in June 1817. We are delighted to welcome the chancellor back to the university to celebrate this landmark as the bicentenary year of his birth comes to a close.
"What makes the event more special is that we are able to share it with the community in which Harper Adams has grown over more than a century.
“We are delighted the mayor of Newport, Councillor Lyn Fowler, and many more community representatives will be joining the university at its celebration.
“We are also delighted to be hosting a symposium on feeding the Commonwealth jointly with the RASC. This is a real opportunity on focus on how agricultural technology can make a real impact on sustainable food production on an international scale.”
University helps develop first African agricultural management programme
The AGCO Agribusiness Qualification Programme at Strathmore University Business School is a follow-up to last year’s memorandum of understanding between AGCO, Harper Adams University and The Bridge Africa to have more youth trained in agribusiness and be better equipped to solve the food security challenges facing Africa.
Harper Adams University has played a key role in advising of the development of the course and will continue to support its delivery, providing teaching elements including agronomy and mechanisation.
The programme has admitted its first cohort of 20 young people from Kenya and Nigeria in its first intake.
The aim is to harness the potential of the youth in driving Africa’s agricultural transformation and become agenda setters in the development of a sustainable food production system that is able to increase farm output by utilising agricultural technology more efficiently and enhance food security.
Dr Andy Wilcox, head of the crop and environment sciences department at Harper Adams University, attended the launch event.
Modules
He said: “I am very pleased and proud to have got to this stage with our great team. It has taken a lot of work so it was a pleasure to see the programme launched this week and to join the first cohort for their opening lectures as well as the official launch event.”
Dr Wilcox, who delivered a talk to the students on the first day of the programme, explained that the structure of foundation science degrees in agriculture and in agri-business already offered at Harper Adams had served as a base from which to develop the AAQ, which will include work-based modules hosted within AGCO subsidiary companies in Kenya.
The first phase of the AAQ is a two-year agribusiness programme to be delivered in SBS in Nairobi and South Africa and upon successful completion will be considered for potential job opportunities within AGCO and the agricultural supply chain in Africa.
The second phase of the programme will involve having all training material online and rolling training across Africa, targeting more 10,000 young people.
The AAQ is believed to be a unique opportunity within the African continent, allowing students who are already in the workforce to extend their skills in agronomy and agri-business.
