Born and educated in Llanelli, he attended the first ever Welsh-medium school to be established by a local authority, followed by a scholarship to Llandovery College. He graduated in history at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth where he also completed his Doctor of Philosophy.
He is an historian, originally from Wales and a fluent Welsh speaker. After a brief period at Queen Mary College, London, he returned to the Department of History at Aberystwyth where he taught for twenty four years and became Head of Department. Foreign most of that time he was also a tutor at the Open University and was seconded to the OU to develop new courses.
In 1991 he was appointed Dean of Human Sciences at City of London Polytechnic which became, in 1992, London Guildhall University (now London Metropolitan University).
He was promoted to Vice-Provost in 1996. He has been actively involved in educational policy and, in particular, the skills agenda of the United Kingdom over a number of years.
He is a Patron of Hillcroft College for Women and chairman-Emeritus of the University Centre, Jersey. Highlands College. In April 2012 he joined the Jisc funded Students FIRST project board as an independent chairman
Hopkin is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and is a Freeman of the City of London, and the Worshipful Company of Educators.
He has been elected an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and of the University of Wales Trinity Street David"s, has an Honorary Doctorate.Litt from Glamorgan University, an Honorary LL.D from McGill University, Montreal, Canada and an Honorary Doctorate.Univ from the Open University. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers and has been awarded a Fellowship of the City and Guilds of London Institute. He was knighted in the 2009 Birthday Honours.
In 2009 he was appointed interim Vice-Chancellor of the University of East London and in 2010 was appointed interim Chair of the Student Loans Company.
He was co-chair of the HE Progression Board for the Department for Children, Schools and Families and HE Champion for the 14–19 Diploma. He has published on Labour and press history and on the use of computers in history, and was co-founder of the Association for History and Computing and founding editor of Llafur, The Journal of Welsh People"s History, of which he is now a Vice-President.
He is currently a Council member of the University of Essex, the City and Guilds of London Institute, and the Campaign for Learning. He is a member of the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA) of which he was vice-chairman and is Patron of Cerebra and was until 2009 Chairman of the UNIAID Foundation, the national charity supporting students in financial difficulty which has now merged with the Brightside Trust. He is a member of the Higher Education Commission, Chair of the Local Economy Policy Unit and a member of the Editorial Board of its journal Local Economy.
He is also a Trustee of the Institute of Historical Research Development Trust, University of London and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Times Higher Education.
He has extensive broadcasting experience and was a member of the British Broadcasting Corporation General Advisory Council.
