Our 2011 summer degree award ceremonies are taking place this week, with more than 2,000 students expected to attend at the city’s Abbey.
The ten ceremonies will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (5, 6, & 7 July), with awards made to nine honorary graduates for outstanding achievements spanning the fields of arts, science and medicine, engineering, business and policy-making.
The ceremonies, presided over by the University’s Chancellor, Lord Tugendhat, will all be preceded by a public procession of some of the University’s senior officers and academics.
The first ceremony at 10am on Tuesday 5 July will be attended by the Mayor of Bath, Bryan Chalker and the Chairman of Bath & North East Somerset Council, Cllr Peter Edwards.
The processions will begin at the Guildhall, go into the High Street, turn right into Cheap Street, and left down Farrs Passage into the Abbey Churchyard. They will return after the ceremonies past Rebecca’s Fountain and into the High Street.
These roads will be closed to traffic for about six minutes during the processions, which will occur at approximately 9.55am, 11.15am (return), 12.25pm, 1.45pm (return), 2.55pm and 4.15pm (return) on all three days, and on Wednesday an extra ceremony will have processions at 5.25pm and 6.45pm (return).
Bath Abbey will be closed to visitors during the day from Monday 4 July to Thursday 7 July, but will open in the evening from 5pm to 8pm (Monday, Tuesday and Thursday) and from 7pm to 8pm on Wednesday. The Abbey shop will open from 10am to 8pm during this period and tower tours will run on the hour from 10am to 7pm on Monday, at 5pm, 6pm and 7pm (Tuesday and Thursday) and at 7pm only on Wednesday 8 July.
Honorary graduates are:
- Dr Peter Bonfield who will receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering on Tuesday (10am). He is Chief Executive of BRE (Building Research Establishment) and a Visiting Professor at the University. He instigated the BRE Innovation Park which has had a significant impact on the UK and global sustainability arena. He has helped to create the sustainable development strategy for the Olympics.
- Margaret Heffernan who will receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Business Administration on Tuesday (12.30pm). She is a Texan-born entrepreneur, chief executive and author. She also worked in BBC radio and television and was recently featured on Channel 4’s The Secret Millionaire. She is a board member of Bath Festivals and Entrepreneur in Residence at the University, working with the School of Management to nurture aspiring student entrepreneurs.
- Dr Thomas Lönngren who will receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Science on Tuesday (3pm). He is a former Executive Director of the European Medicines Agency. He was senior pharmaceutical consultant for the Swedish International Development Agency’s health cooperation programme in Vietnam. In 2008 he received the Drug Information Association’s Distinguished Career Award.
- Professor Datuk Dr Mohd Mydin Mohd Musa who will receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine on Wednesday (10am). Professor Mydin is a distinguished surgeon in Orthopaedics and Traumatology from Malaysia who has been instrumental in developing sport & exercise medicine in his country and the wider South East Asian region.
- Don McCullin who will receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Arts on Wednesday (12.30pm). He is widely recognised as one of the greatest war photographers of the 20th century. He covered battlefields in Cyprus, the Congo, Biafra, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, El Salvador and the Middle East. Twice wounded on the front line he is the first photojournalist to have been made Commander of the British Empire (CBE). The Victoria Art Gallery in Bath ran an exhibition of Don’s work entitled ‘Shaped by War’ in September 2010.
- Dame Linda Partridge who will receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Science on Wednesday (3pm). She is a geneticist who studies the biology and genetics of ageing and age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. In 2009, the UKRC announced Dame Partridge as one of six Women of Outstanding Achievement in Science, Engineering and Technology.
- Mr Bharat Shah who will receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Business Administration on Wednesday (5.30pm). He was born in Kenya and is a University of Bath alumnus, among the first batch of students to graduate when the University first received its charter. He started work as a pharmacist in Boots the Chemist in Bath and later went on to start Sigma Pharmaceuticals Plc, Watford. In 2006 Sigma was listed as one of the top 100 companies in Management Today.
- Sir Roger Singleton who will receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws on Thursday (10am). He is Chairman of the Independent Safeguarding Authority which was set up to prevent unsuitable people from working with children and vulnerable adults. He was chief executive of children’s charity Barnardo’s for 21 years and was awarded a knighthood for his services to children in 2005. He is currently Chair of The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.
- Professor Rod Flower who will receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws on Thursday (3pm). He has spent the majority of his scientific career working in the area of inflammation and anti-inflammatory drug medicines. He was a major contributor in research that explained the action of aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. His most significant work concerns the mechanism of action of the anti-inflammatory glucocorticoid steroids and the cromone anti-allergic drugs. He was Chair of Pharmacology at Bath in the late 1980s.