Journal of European Baptist Studies, 2017

with his wife, Janice, serving as Director in Anabaptist and Baptist studies, supervising doctoral students, serving as Academic Dean, and acting as mentor to several of us who needed to learn our way around British higher education administration. In the meantime, we also extended approaches to the Partnership for Theological Education in Manchester, whose Principal was Dr David R. Goodboum. 27 So, IBTS became a member of the Partnership to gain access to their Master of Arts in Mission, validated by the prestigious University of Manchester, 28 which was to be the third plank in the programmes offered to the EBF family. It is one thing to have good visits, especially in the field of validation, but it is another very necessary step to receive the legal documentation. Professor D. P. Davies and his visitation team assured the University that IBTS was indeed a viable partner with an outstanding library, a good academic team, and with reliable part-time and own-time academic back-up, spearheaded by the generosity of Michael Quicke at Spurgeon’s 29 in making available Martin Selman and Ian Randall. The legal documentation duly arrived, permitting the teaching, marking, and dissertation assessment for the degree of Master of Theology in Biblical Studies and also in Baptist and Anabaptist Studies. A third legal document also arrived, permitting the supervision of doctoral students in the related subject areas and more generally in theology. Professor Davies had been more than impressed by IBTS. He had been bowled over by the campus, the library, the academic team and, indeed, the good Czech beer. From then on he took every possible opportunity to visit us, support us and to encourage, especially, students in the doctoral programme. Some might have viewed that third legal document as a ‘mistake’, but for D. P. Davies, he had confidence IBTS could achieve much more. Developing a doctoral programme This agreement to supervise doctorates filled the vision for which George Sadler had been aiming in 1949. No longer did we have to create proto - doctoral students to fulfil the criteria of the University of Zurich or Charles 27 David R. Goodboum became another trusted friend of IBTS, helping us in our educational methods and at a crucial moment heading up the task group which proposed moving from the Praha campus to Amsterdam. Another person who, like Martin Selman, made a powerful difference behind the scenes. 28 The University of Manchester has a long record of excellence in theological education. The University currently ranks number 29 in the QS world university rankings. 29 Michael Quicke was Principal of Spurgeon’s College and later moved on to be Professor of Preaching at Northern Baptist Seminary in Chicago and was replaced by the Revd Dr Nigel G. Wright. Nigel proved to be every bit as supportive as Michael and added to our joys later by being a regular visitor, examiner, and lecturer for IBTS.