Married father-of-four Lieutenant Commander Ade Richardson, aged 36, completed the year-long MSc in Engineering & Management at the University of Portsmouth in July and was presented with his award at Portsmouth Naval Base.
Based at HMS Collingwood as part of the Maritime Capability Trials and Assessment (MCTA) organisation, Lt Cdr Richardson is a specialist on underwater weapons and enrolled on the degree course to further his engineering knowledge. He said:
“I was delighted to be given this award. Two-thirds of the people on the course are Royal Navy so I hadn’t really thought that I would do this well, I am so pleased. I enjoyed the work, it was a very interesting course and it will have a direct benefit for my job role.
“It was sometimes challenging fitting in my coursework around my family and job commitments but I’m so glad I did it, it is a real achievement.”

His Commanding Officer, Captain Michael Page, said:
“This is a great result for Ade, we are all extremely pleased for him. It is a double achievement because not only did he do well academically but the degree will be of direct benefit to his everyday work.”

Lt Cdr Richardson joined the Navy in 1994 as an Air Engineering Artificer, serving firstly with 848 Squadron (Mk4 Sea Kings) then with 846 Squadron for a tour of Northern Ireland.
Following deployment to the Red Sea with HMS London he passed out as a sub-lieutenant in 1998 and deployed to the Far East with HMS Glasgow before joining the submarine service.
He then served with Trident missile submarines HMS Vengeance and HMS Vigilant until 2006 when he began working for MCTA.
The Trafalgar Prize consisted of a certificate, glass decanter and bottle of port presented by the University of Portsmouth.

The University of Portsmouth has been running a partnership programme with the Royal Navy since 1991. Under the scheme RN staff can undertake training while continuing in their full-time employment.

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Learning at Work Masters’ Degrees are offered in the following areas:

• MA Business Management
• MA Business and Computer Studies
• MA Combined Studies*
• MSc Applied Computing
• MSc Applied Science
• MSc Combined Studies*
• MSc Creative Technologies and Enterprise
• MSc Engineering
• MSc Engineering and Management
• MSc Engineering Project Management
• MSc Maritime Studies

* ‘Combined Studies’ is the award for students whose work is not covered by any of the others.

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