My partner Colin Bourn, who has died aged 75, was a pioneer of university distance learning and an early innovator in the field of employment law.
Colin was born in Enfield, north London, and studied economics, specialising in sociology, at London School of Economics. He initially worked as a management trainee and then as a lecturer at what is now Birmingham City University and at Leeds Polytechnic (now Leeds Metropolitan University). In 1966, he became lecturer in adult education at Leicester University and began developing management courses for trade unionists and day-release courses with the Workers' Educational Association. By the early 1970s he was running industrial relations and sociology courses for shop stewards.
The 1971 Industrial Relations Act provided a new legal framework for this work and Colin decided he could be more effective if he had formal legal training. He was admitted to the bar, entirely self-tutored, and became senior lecturer at Leicester University Law School. Subsequently Colin wrote seven books and many other publications in the new and growing field of employment law. His best-known work, co-authored with John Whitmore, is Anti-Discrimination Law in Britain. The third edition was published in 1996.
Rather than remaining in the ivory tower, Colin wanted to make employment law accessible and useful to non-academics. With this in mind, he set up the International Centre for Management, Law and Industrial Relations at Leicester University, offering distance-learning master's degrees in several areas of employment law. The courses were organised to attract part-time students with day jobs.
The programme is still extremely successful and today its students work throughout the legal and industrial relations sectors in the UK and abroad. Initially reluctant to pioneer distance learning, Leicester University became more enthusiastic when the centre had a turnover of more than half a million pounds. By 1999, when Colin left the university, distance learning accounted for about 10% of the university's income.
In 1992 Colin completed his pupillage, joined a local chambers and went into part-time practice as a barrister. In 2003 he was appointed as a judge at the Birmingham employment tribunal, from which he finally retired in 2007.
In his retirement Colin pursued his love of French via an Open University degree. We spent time in our French home in Collioure and travelled extensively in "Jocy", our motor home. Colin was a modest, kind and compassionate man of integrity who wore his learning lightly. He was a strong supporter of the Labour party, passionate about environmental issues and a lifelong reader of the Guardian.
Colin is survived by his brother, Michael; his first partner, Jill; their children, Jo and Rob; four grandchildren; and me.