Professor Donald Bligh's profound belief in the pivotal role of universities goes beyond conventional teaching. He advocates for universities as centres fostering new knowledge and new interpretations of old knowledge and established concepts. He emphasises on the significance of imagination, rigorous research, and critical analysis in shaping new ideas.

The Professor Bligh Scholarship

Bligh's devotion to nurturing intellectual rebels led to the establishment of the prestigious Professor Bligh Scholarship. This scholarship seeks second-year students who exhibit academic enthusiasm, innovation, open-mindedness, and the courage to challenge conventional wisdom. It celebrates those who are the first in their families to attend university, providing financial aid and personalised mentorship for a year.

The motivation behind establishing the Professor Bligh Scholarship stemmed from compassion and his desire to cultivate individuals who challenge norms and think independently. ‘I wanted to teach a few students to think outside the box. I reasoned if after 20 years I have found one scholar who has the qualities to significantly change the world, £20,000 has been well worth it. I found one: Sheree Smith. More than once, I was in tears of appreciation going from my study to tell my wife what she had said. I gave her the confidence to think independently,’ he says.

Transformative years at university

‘My years at Leeds Beckett were the happiest of my life. My life has shown that I am no good at exams and much better at writing theses or reports.’ Bligh recalls, ‘We matured a lot in our two years, but remember virtually all of us did two years of National Service as well. That made an enormous difference compared with those straight from school. As a conscientious objector, I worked as a hospital porter. Without that my career as an academic would never have got off the ground when I started to train teachers of physiotherapy. When there were opportunities to do the same for university teachers, I was virtually the only person with that experience in higher education,’ he adds.

These experiences underscore the importance of unconventional paths to critical thinking. His own experience at university began the journey of the transformative impact he has had throughout his long and eminent career.

An illustrious career

Bligh's career as an educator and academic luminary spans diverse roles, including lecturing at Croydon Technical College, training teachers of physiotherapy, and serving at esteemed institutions like the London Institute of Education, University of Exeter, and Dundee University. He had previously taught geography, geology, local history, psychology of perception and ethics part-time to adults in different institutions for Extra-Mural Studies.

That is when he learned not only new teaching methods but a wide variety of ways of thinking. His contributions extend to reshaping police training and investigating corruption, emphasising mediation, restorative justice, and the pursuit of academic excellence. In all these, he was learning to see different ways of thinking and perceive how different people think in quite different ways.

Professor Donald Bligh remains an inspirational figure—an embodiment of intellectual curiosity, unconventional wisdom, and a tireless advocate for education that fosters innovation and challenges the status quo. His legacy continues to inspire generations of students to embrace their intellectual rebelliousness and carve new paths in academia and beyond.