Article in summary
The article describes the 2023 CIFE awards ceremony at the House of Lords, at which CIFE President, Lord Lexden OBE presented prizes to high achievers from CIFE colleges.
Article in detail
The annual CIFE Academic Awards Ceremony was held at the House of Lords on Tuesday, 25th April 2023.
Cife was delighted once more to be invited by The Lord Lexden, OBE, the Honorary President of cife, to hold its annual prize ceremony in the Cholmondeley Room of the House of Lords. It was a beautiful afternoon on the terrace of the Palace of Westminster for award-winners and their families and college representatives to celebrate their successes.
Lord Lexden is an outstanding advocate for the highest standards of education and his encouragement of cife students is legendary amongst cife Principals. He was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge and, was a postgraduate researcher at Edinburgh University, and lectured at Queen’s University, Belfast. He is a respected author on political history, having been a senior Conservative Party official, working with Margaret Thatcher and other leading members of the Party on Conservative policy on education and other subjects as secretary of the Party’s policy group on education. Lord Lexden has had a particular interest in British independent schools and colleges for many years and was General Secretary of the Independent Schools Council which accredits some 1,300 schools throughout the United Kingdom. Lord Lexden has been a Conservative member of the House of Lords since 2011 and was appointed one of its Deputy Speakers in 2017. Education is prominent among the subjects on which he speaks, and he seeks opportunities to highlight the remarkable success of cife colleges in enabling their talented students to gain places at leading universities.
Winners represented the diverse British and international community that cife colleges serve and the range of their university destinations, from Oxbridge to medical schools, and in subjects from engineering to photography, underscores how ambitious cife students are, and the success of member Colleges and their brilliant teachers in helping them realise their aspirations.
Similarly impressive was the range of extra- and co-curricular achievements demonstrated by the talented attendees. The group included mathematics coaching, fashion design, football, mentoring, politics, dance, academic Olympiads, and more, amongst their interests. All made a genuinely broad contribution to their college communities.
Many students join cife colleges with well-established track records of academic excellence. Others have experienced challenging academic or personal circumstances and this year’s winners also included inspiring students who, through hard work and determination, turned around their academic fortunes and exceeded all prior expectations.
Cife congratulates them all.
