A leading academic and digital pioneer at the University of Bath’s Institute of Coding (IoC) has been awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours.
The award to IoC director Prof Rachid Hourizi, pictured, was “richly deserved”, said the university’s vice-chancellor and president Prof Ian White, who hailed the institute’s work in breaking down barriers to digital learning.
Prof Hourizi has led the IoC’s successful collaboration of more than 300 employers, 35 universities and 20 outreach partners who have worked together to help a larger and more diverse group of learners into tech careers since 2018.
In total it has helped more than 900,000 learners to gain digital skills and employment in the tech sector.
The IoC promotes learning as a lifelong process and aims to spread opportunity by “providing what you need, when you need it, in a place you can reach”.
With that mission in mind, the Institute partners with universities around the country from Durham and Manchester to Swansea and London.
Prof Hourizi worked for 10 years as a financial markets and commodity trader in London, Paris, Geneva and the US, before taking up his first post at the University of Bath in 2005. He described being awarded the MBE as “a celebration of colleagues, friends and partners across the country”.
He added: “I’m very grateful for the award but entirely conscious that it celebrates the work of colleagues at the Institute of Coding, the University of Bath and our friends and partners across the country.
“The need for digital skills is more pressing than ever and the employers, universities and charities that have done the hard work here are more important than ever.”
Prof Ian White added: “I offer my warmest congratulations to Rachid on his richly deserved award of an MBE in The King’s Birthday Honours List.
“Rachid’s leadership of the Institute of Coding has enabled the team and our partners to come together to break down barriers to digital learning and employment in a most special way.
“Education is a life-changing experience, and Rachid’s work has already made a real difference to the lives of so many people.”
Bath MP Wera Hobhouse also hailed the work of Prof Hourizi and the Institute, saying said the award showed its impact not just in the city or region, but around the country.
“The Institute’s mission to make digital skills available to everyone is a credit to Bath, and Prof Hourizi is clearly a credit to the university,” she added.
Co-chair of the IoC’s board Jacqueline de Rojas CBE, who is also a board member at Tech UK, said:
“In his understated but ever effective style, Rachid has long been a man on a mission. His work for the Institute of Coding has created opportunity for people in every corner of the country.
“We are privileged to have him lead the Institute and especially proud that his contribution has and will continue to promote employment and opportunity in the tech sector for diverse groups previously unable to pivot into tech.”
