A PIONEERING education chief has announced that he will retire at the end of the current academic year.

Mr Peter Shuker, who has been the principal and chief executive at Darlington college of technology for 14 years, told the college corporation board of his decision last week.

His retirement ends a 38-year career in further education, during which he has been at the forefront of national and international developments, particularly the introduction of information technology systems for education and computer-based access to learning.

Mr Shuker also played a key part in establishing the highly regarded Northern Colleges network and recently stood down as chairman of the national Information and Learning Technologies Association after ten years in office.

His most recent achievement was being involved in the development of the country's most advanced on-line learning centre at Catterick Garrison.

Mr Shuker told the D&S Times this week that he had decided to retire a year early because of forthcoming changes in the education system.

He said: "The main reason is the dramatic changes that the government is introducing next year. It would be a real challenge, but there is no point in me hanging around for another year. I believe it's in the best interests of the college to let somebody else take over at this crucial time."

Looking back on his time at the college, Mr Shuker added: "I feel very positive about what has been achieved here in my time. I'd like to think that the impact the college has on its community is significantly greater than it was 14 years ago."

The chairman of the corporation board, Mr Alasdair MacConachie, paid tribute to Mr Shuker's success in leading the college through some difficult times in the early 90s to a position where it now had a record number of students.

He said: "Peter has led the college in an exemplary fashion and will be a hard act to follow."

Born in Middlesbrough, Mr Shuker went to the town's Hugh Bell school before going on to study traffic engineering and planning at Bradford university.

He started his working life as an apprentice structural draughtsman and became a lecturer at Newcastle and Huddersfield. He is a former senior manager at Cleveland technical college and at Leeds college of building, where he was principal for five years.

Mr Shuker and his wife, Veronica, live in Darlington and their two children, Edward and Helen, are at university.