PRIZE FOR HARPER STUDENT

Posted 5 April 2004

A student of a Shropshire college has become the first to bag a newly introduced award. Bobby Barbour, former president of the student union at Harper Adams University College, Newport, is the first winner of the new Harper-Ireland Club President’s Prize.

Bobby, who is originally from County Wicklow, Ireland, was one of 130 Irish students at the Shropshire college who form the Harper Ireland Club.

The presentation to Bobby by Professor Wynne Jones, club president and college principal, took place at the recent dinner of the Harper-Ireland Club on the college campus. Professor Jones paid tribute to the contribution Bobby had made to the club but particularly to the community life of the college during his time as a student and especially during his year in office as president of the Students’ Union.

He said: “Bobby proved himself a most capable leader of the 2000-strong student body. As president he was effectively the chief executive of a business with a six-figure turnover. He proved himself an astute business manager. During his presidency he earned the respect and admiration of his student peers, of staff, governors and some distinguished visitors to the college.”

Bobby received a specially commissioned trophy of Irish crystal, which will be awarded annually at the discretion of the Principal.

Bobby entered Harper Adams University College in 1998, where he studied agriculture with agricultural marketing. On graduating, in 2002, Bobby was elected the first ever president of the Students’ Union from the Republic of Ireland. The first student from Ireland entered Harper Adams at its foundation in 1901.

At the end of his presidency last year Bobby returned to Ireland to be appointed general manager of Killowen Foods, a well-established company producing a range of yoghurts and chilled desserts.