Peter Horrocks
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Peter John Gibson Horrocks CBE (born 8 October 1959) is a broadcast executive and a former Vice-Chancellor (chief executive) of The
Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...
. He was educated at the independent King's College School in
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and at
Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...
. He was previously director of the
BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...
Group.


BBC

Horrocks joined the BBC in October 1981 as a news trainee. He worked on '' Newsnight'' as an assistant producer and then producer. After time as a senior producer, intake editor and output editor on '' Breakfast Time'', he became deputy editor of ''
Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...
'' in 1988. Horrocks edited
BBC television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...
's coverage of the 1992 general election. He edited the coverage of the
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,
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and local elections, as well as the 1994 European Election results and General Election results programmes in May 1997. In May 1992, Horrocks was appointed editor of
BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...
's social affairs programme, ''Public Eye'', a position he held until he launched ''Here And Now'', a current affairs magazine intended to capture high audience figures, in January 1994. He became editor of ''Newsnight'' in April 1994, and editor of ''Panorama'' in December 1997. Horrocks became Head of Current Affairs in June 2000. He was executive producer of ''Brits'', ''True Spies'', ''Smallpox 2002'', '' The Day Britain Stopped'', ''Dirty War'' and of the documentary trilogy '' The Power of Nightmares''. Horrocks won
Bafta The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
awards in 1997 and 2005 for his editorship of ''Newsnight'' and for ''The Power of Nightmares''. He became Head of Television News in September 2005. In November 2007, following restructuring of BBC News, he became Head of the BBC newsroom. In April 2009, he replaced Nigel Chapman as Head of the
BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...
and was responsible for the overall editorial leadership and management, a post in which he remained until 2014. He is the chairman of the BBC Media Action Board of Trustees (Previously called the BBC World Service Trust). While at the BBC he was paid a salary of £240,000 in 2013.


The Open University

The
Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...
announced on 11 December 2014, that Horrocks had been appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University, taking over the role vacated by Martin Bean. He took up the post on 5 May 2015, and was paid £360,000 per year. In 2018 Horrocks took part in a Parliamentary hearing on value for money in higher education, with MPs criticising the level of pay of vice-chancellors and asking them to justify their salaries. Horrocks acknowledged that the issue "potentially undermine the value of universities in this country”. Proposals to cut £100 million from the annual budget of £420 million cutting courses by a third and significant staff redundancies were announced in March 2018. Horrocks described the changes, reducing courses by a third, as "reprioritising". Horrocks had also angered some staff by saying academics "get away with not teaching". He later issued a letter of apology and stated: "I sincerely regret that my careless language caused offence or hurt". The following month, the OU's branch of the University and College Union (UCU) passed a vote of no confidence in Horrocks, or his plans. In response, the regional UCU called Horrocks to resign "as soon as possible". Horrocks resigned from the post of Vice-Chancellor (having to choose between it, or being fired) on 13 April 2018 "with immediate effect". He remained as a consultant to the institution for a further three months.


Personal life

Horrocks is married and has three children.


References


External links


BBC World ServiceBBC NewsPatron of Educational Wealth Fund
(2018) {{DEFAULTSORT:Horrocks, Peter 1959 births Living people People educated at King's College School, London Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge BBC executives Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People associated with the Open University British television producers