Visitors to the vice-chancellor’s office at the University of Huddersfield can’t help but be impressed.

It might be the mural running the length of one wall and showing the royal personages, celebrities, academics and business people associated with the university that gets their attention.

Or it might be the timeline below charting the multi-million pound building programme that has transformed the look of the Queensgate campus with a series of stunning structures in the 10 years since Prof Bob Cryan took the helm.

The myriad of awards that line the shelves might attract admiration – most notably the much-coveted Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education, which Prof Cryan likens to a “damehood” for the university.

But the real eye-opener for first-time visitor to Prof Cryan’s seventh-floor office of the Central Services Building comes when you walk onto the decking outside and drink in the view of Castle Hill, the green swathe of fields and trees below – and the evidence closer to hand of Huddersfield’s industrial past.

“When I get visitors from London who know nothing of Huddersfield I take them out here to show them that this has always been an entrepreneurial town,” said Prof Cryan. “You can see the Huddersfield Narrow Canal – the HS2 of its time – which was built by enterprising people. The same applies to the people who built and ran the textile mills, which you can also see. As a university, we are trying to create that entrepreneurial ethos for the future.”

HRH The Duke of York visits the University of Huddersfield - The Duke, with Vice Chancellor Prof. Bob Cryan, unveils the foundation stone for the University's proposed new building.

And for Prof Cryan, 52, it’s a personal mission. “I’m a Huddersfield lad through and through,” he said. “I went to Deighton Secondary School and Huddersfield New College, but when I came to this place to study, it transformed my life. When I arrived, I was a gawky teenager who lacked self-confidence. I was transformed from someone who had barely passed his A-levels to someone who managed to achieve academically. I want to transform this university in the way it transformed me.”

With his impressive CV, Prof Cryan could have had the pick of any senior academic post. But he said: “I wanted to come back to my home town and repay the debt I owed. I want to build confidence in the institution in the way the institution built my personal confidence.”

That debt has been more than settled. In the 10 years since his appointment, Prof Cryan and his team have effectively rebuilt one half of the university and refurbished the other.

“Academically, it’s a completely different place,” he said.

It’s a transformation that has earned the institution top awards, including the Queen’s Anniversary Prize and the titles of University of the Year and Entrepreneurial University of the Year.

Prof Cryan spells out the secret of the university’s success as a business in its own right – and one of Huddersfield’s biggest employers with nearly 3,000 employees and turnover of almost £160m which generates £300m a year for the local economy.

University of Huddersfield Vice Chancellor Prof Bob Cryan (right) and Colin Blair watch another Huddersfield University campus development take shape

“We’re very focused on financial performance,” he said. “We’re number one in the UK among mainstream universities in terms of financial sustainability.

“We took ourselves out of debt within three years of my appointment and we are one of only a few universities to have no debt at all. And once you sort your underlying finances, you have the financial capacity to do interesting things.”

The university’s interesting things include a £150m investment in its buildings which has placed it in the top 10 universities for quality of facilities.

“That gives me a tremendous amount of satisfaction,” said Prof Cryan. “My first academic post here – as the youngest lecturer in the UK at the age of 22 – was in the old engineering tower, which was held together by bands of metal. My office was created by clearing out a cleaner’s cupboard.

“Now we have created an environment where people take pride in the institution. As a result, you don’t see much litter or graffiti. A good environment leads to a good work ethic.”

As a business, the university operates the “Three Is” – to inspire staff and students alike, to innovate and to achieve international renown.

Said Prof Cryan: “In terms of inspiring, we have done well in national student surveys and regularly top the table in many of our teaching areas. We have won more teaching ‘Oscars’ than any other university since we brought in our strategy in 2008 and all our academic staff are fellows of a higher education academy.

HM The Queen visits Huddersfield University - with Vice Chancellor Bob Cryan

“And we are regularly in the top 10 for the proportion of our students getting into employment.”

As part of its commitment to innovation, the university has quadrupled the number of researchers on site – leapfrogging many of its rival institutions and bringing particular benefits to business as a result.

Prof Cryan said the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre (3M BIC) at Firth Street, which opened in 2012, was the “physical manifestation of that engagement with industry” by providing office space, laboratory facilities and high-tech equipment for local start-ups and SMEs to access. The university is also involved in the Globe Mills development at Slaithwaite, which provides larger premises for businesses once they outgrow 3M BIC.

The university has also been propelled into the top 10 universities for knowledge transfer partnerships (KTP) – where academics and researchers work on specific projects with firms. Among its successes, university scientists have worked with Fenay bridge-based Paxman Coolers on its scalp-cooling technology to combat hair loss in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy – while at the height of the horse meat scandal university analysts were engaged in