He left school at 16, but today Lord Sawyer will be installed as Chancellor of Teeside University. Nick Morrison talks to the trade unionist who hauled himself up to become one of the architects of New Labour.

WHEN Tom Sawyer was asked to be Chancellor of Teesside University, his main concern was over the amount of time he would be asked to devote to the task.

"I asked what the commitment was, and they said I would have to come up for degree ceremonies, probably at least twice a year. I said that isn't enough for me, I wouldn't feel committed," he says. "I hoped they might want a little bit more than that."

Tom, Lord Sawyer of Darlington since 1998, saw the invitation as an opportunity to learn more about higher education, and to be a champion for the university. But before he accepted, he conferred with friends in the House of Lords, particularly Lord Puttnam, chancellor at Sunderland University, over what the role of chancellor involved.

Chancellors largely have a ceremonial role, handing out degrees and representing the university at formal events, but Lord Sawyer sees the potential to do more than that. As well as regular visits to the university, it is an opportunity to argue the case for higher education in the House of Lords.

"Of course it is a great honour, but I don't know that much about university chancellors. I have never been to university, so I'm not an expert on what they do.

"I got talking with the university about it and said I see my role developing into somebody who spends enough time there to be part of the university, to be able to find out what the issues are and to help in any way I can to champion their cause.

"I'm not going to be part of the management of the university or anything like that, but I would like to give a little bit of passion and enthusiasm," he says.

He may have been born and bred in Darlington, less than 20 miles from the university's Middlesbrough base, but there is more than geography to make Teesside an appropriate institution to join for Lord Sawyer.

Teesside has made a virtue out of its commitment to part-time students and those from less advantaged backgrounds. It is clearly a heritage which strikes a chord with a peer for whom his own part-time education played such a major role in his life.

He left Eastbourne School at 13 to go to Darlington Technical School, and from there became an apprentice engineer. But it was in his early 20s that he embarked on a lifelong love affair with books, studying at night school with the Workers' Educational Association.

"Teesside has got the highest number of part-time students of any university, and if I had an education it was a part-time education," he says. "I have got quite a strong empathy for people who don't get the opportunity to study full-time. If there is a university that is right for me, this is it."

In 1971, he became a full-time official for the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE), the forerunner to Unison, and then secretary of Darlington Trades Council. He rose through the union's ranks to become deputy general secretary of NUPE from 1981-94, chairman of the Labour Party in 1991-2 and then the party's general secretary from 1994-8. In his union role, he was a key ally of former Labour leader Neil Kinnock in his struggle against the party's militant left-wing in the 1980s.

Lord Kinnock will be among those attending today's installation ceremony, along with former Redcar MP and Cabinet minister Mo Mowlam, and TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.

Now 61, Lord Sawyer succeeds former Tory Cabinet minister, and Richmond MP, Leon Brittan, who steps down after 12 years as chancellor. As well as championing the cause of part-time students, he also hopes to help the university increase access to higher education, particularly among young men, an under-represented group on Teesside.

"You can bring your own knowledge and life experience, but you can also bring a lot of contacts. I would hope to help establish a network of political contacts, and also business contacts," he says.

Although he is a Labour peer, he does not take part in the Government's programme, and in the past has tended to confine his contributions in the House of Lords to employment issues. Now education matters and others concerning the university will be fair game.

One of his three sons still lives in Darlington, along with two grandchildren, making him a regular visitor to the native North-East, although he has made his home in London. These visits have given him an opportunity to observe the changes in the North-East over the last 20 years, particularly on Teesside.

"It is heart-warming to see what they have done. Middlesbrough was a place that had been forgotten by a lot of people in the 70s and 80s, there was not really the energy and commitment to replace everything that had been lost, but that has been turned around magnificently.

"The university campus is integrated with the town and there has been a big change in attitude, a real get-up-and-go feeling about it, which it didn't always have," he says.

He sees fewer changes in Darlington, but although he has always been passionate about his home town, it was almost the source of tension when he became a peer seven years ago. He was given a peerage at the same time as Brian Mackenzie, a fellow pupil at Dodmire Junior School and later an outspoken president of the Police Superintendents' Association.

But when the two former schoolmates and new peers went to a House of Lords official to discuss their titles, it was Lord Mackenzie who was called first.

"I thought I'm not going to be Lord Sawyer of Darlington, because he was going to take it," he says. "When I went to see the Garter King of Arms, and he said 'What would you like for your title?', I said it has probably gone, because two people can't have the same title.

"He said, 'What do you want?', I said, 'Darlington', and he looked it up and said it hadn't gone."

His old school friend had opted to become Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate, but the new Lord Sawyer had a back-up plan in case Darlington had gone.

"If he had taken it, I was going to ask if I could have Dodmire, because that was my school and it would have been nice for the school. I have still got links with the school because I go back occasionally.

"I might not have been allowed to have a school as my title, but that's what I would have wanted."