A BLACKBURN College criminology lecturer is celebrating getting senior fellowship status, which led to him being asked to contribute to a new textbook.

Phil Johnson started off at the Fielden Street college in 1995 lecturing law, and moved into criminology once the course started in 1997.

The 44-year-old said he had to get quite a lot of material together to apply for senior fellowship status.

He said: “I had to write an account of my professional practice, which was basically an account of everything I’ve done for the past 15 years.

“I also submitted two high impact case studies about how my teaching has had an impact across a department wider than the classroom.”

His 7,000 word account was sent to the Higher Education Academy for a peer review.

Phil said he was delighted to receive a letter to say he had passed.

He said: “I’m pleased personally, but also for my colleagues in the criminology department. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have been able to do the case studies. It also shows that there are people here doing real university work comparable with anywhere in the country. While it’s important for me personally, it’s also good for Blackburn College’s reputation.”

Since getting his senior fellowship status, Phil has been invited to co-author a new textbook for the Oxford University Press. The book is a new undergraduate criminology textbook, written to accompany the Oxford Handbook of Criminology.

Phil will be co-authoring the book with four other criminology lecturers from Swansea University, the University of Westminster, Durham University and Aberystwyth University.

He said: “I’m really excited as it’s going to be a new form of text book.

“It’s written for students in a different way. It’s right up my street, as it’s part of an e-learning course for students.”

The book is due to be published in 2015.

“I’ve got a 12-month deadline. It’s going to be a lot of work, but I don’t think I would have got the chance to do it if it wasn’t for the senior fellowship status,” Phil said.