Academic psychiatry at Keele University reached its 10th birthday in 1996. In 1986 John Cox was appointed to the foundation Chair of Psychiatry in what was then the Department of Postgraduate Medicine (Cox, 1990; Barrett, 1991). The School of Postgraduate Medicine was established in 1989 and along with it a formal Department of Psychiatry. There is no undergraduate medical school at Keele and the School of Postgraduate Medicine, with 14 full Professorships, is now the largest in the United Kingdom, outside of London. The Department of Psychiatry has expanded in size since 1989 and has one Professor of Psychiatry, four Senior Lecturers and two Lecturers. With its busy MRCPsych teaching programme, a Diploma and MSc in General Psychiatry and research activity it has made a significant contribution to the raising of the standards of North Staffordshire psychiatry. From its small beginnings it has now attained a national and international profile.