David McLoughlin set to retire after 19 years of service

11/07/2018 by Sinead Staunton

David McCloughlin

Much loved Senior Lecturer in Theology at Newman University, David McLoughlin, is set to retire this summer after 19 years with the university.

David joined in 1999 where he split his time between being the university chaplain and also a lecturer. David’s previous role included teaching young priests so he looked forward to transferring those skills to his role at Newman; David even turned down a job in Rome to become part of the Newman community.

When asked what attracted him to Newman University David said “I had once received a grant from the council to give me the opportunity to study abroad and had promised that when I returned I would work in the West Midlands and give back to the area. I wanted to help train a new generation of Teachers, specifically RE Teahchers, and I liked the professionalism of education at Newman University.”

Throughout his time at Newman David has seen a whole range of changes, both academically with students and staff, as well as physically with building developments around campus. David comments “The most significant change is the amount of students studying here; when I joined, the then Newman College, there were roughly 800 students and now as a University we have grown to just short of 3000 students.”

As well as this change David has witnessed Newman progress from a College to University College to a fully-fledged University as we know it today. The campus has grown and teaching spaces improved over the years with most recently the renovation of the reception area and introduction of the new atrium which provides students with further social space.

“Even though the university has expanded, it still keeps its ‘small university’ feel as staff know their students and have an open door policy to ensure that students can speak with us whenever they need to – that is what makes Newman different.”

Despite representing the university abroad and being awarded as staff person of the year in 2018, when asked about his biggest achievement whilst working at Newman David commented “Seeing my students achieve; seeing students gain their degrees and progress within their careers is my proudest achievement.”

It is clear that David will be missed greatly upon his retirement and he admits that he will miss being able to see students transition through university and will also miss the interesting discussions with fellow colleagues.

David presented his final lecture of ‘The Hospitality of Strangers’ in May as part of the Humanities Research Centre, and also enjoyed a leaving party before entering into retirement in the hope to enjoy some travelling and also to focus on his work within the community.

Newman wishes to thank David for his hard work and commitment over the past 19 years and wish him well for his retirement.