Richard joined NMITE from Aston University, where he worked as a Senior Teaching Fellow in the College of Engineering and Physics. Earlier in his career, he led teaching in Mechanical Engineering at University of Warwick.
Before moving into higher education, Professor Lillington spent a number of years in the aerospace and automotive industries. This combination of industry experience and academic leadership is central to his appointment and is expected to support NMITE’s applied, practice-focused approach to engineering education.
As Head of Learning and Teaching, he holds a senior leadership position with responsibility for enhancing teaching quality across the institution. The role includes overseeing curriculum design and assessment, guiding academic staff, delivering educational strategy, and maintaining strong academic standards as NMITE continues to grow.
Richard says:
I joined academia about 10 years ago, after a 20 year stint in industry, where I worked in aerospace and automotive fuel control systems. Fun fact - the fuel control system for a truck is a lot more high-tech than for a jet fighter - really! One of my last roles in industry was as lead on the Grad Scheme for the company across various UK sites. This gave me a real insight into the state of readiness of a regular grad engineer, and how they transition into working life.
I was drawn to NMITE because I really do think we can do engineering education better. The best and most value-adding teaching I have been involved with was also around design and solving authentic problems, so working somewhere focussed entirely on activity-led learning was really appealing, as I know it’s the kind of authentic, confidence-building learning our grads will need.
Another, key reason NMITE appeals is because it works hard to create opportunities for people who might otherwise not get to be an Engineer. My own life experience has shown me that education can be transformational. I was the first in my family to go to uni, and throughout my time in industry I was keen to bolt on extra learning via the OU, then a part-time master’s, and eventually a part-time PhD. Being able to upskill and deploy these developed skills has really helped, but having a bit of a plan and being active in managing my career has helped too. I’m keen to help create the same sort of opportunities for others – students and staff.
Outside of work, Richard notes he is probably either on a motorbike, messing about with a motorbike, or thinking about motorbikes.