Our 2013 summer degree ceremonies take place this week, with more than 2,400 students expected to receive their academic awards at the city’s Abbey.
The 11 ceremonies will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (2, 3 and 4 July), with awards made to nine honorary graduates for outstanding achievements spanning the fields of engineering, science, fiction and the civil service.
Students from the Faculty of Engineering & Design, School of Management, Faculty of Humanities & Social Science and Faculty of Science will all be receiving their degrees across the three days.
The ceremonies, which will be the last to be presided over by current Chancellor, Lord Tugendhat, will all be preceded by a public procession of some of the University’s senior officers and academics through the city.
During the three days, nine people prominent in their field will be receiving honorary degrees from the University. Those receiving the accolade include novelist Philip Pullman, Chairman of the McLaren Group and McLaren Automotive Ron Dennis and Mr Anthony Best, who founded the Bradford on Avon’s Anthony Best Dynamics Ltd which supplies advanced testing systems to the global motor industry.
The first ceremony at 10am on Tuesday 2 July will be attended by the Mayor of Bath, Councillor Malcolm Lees, and the Chairman of Bath & North East Somerset Council, Councillor Neil Butters.
On each of the days, 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, 11.00am (return), 12.25pm, 1.30pm (return), 2.55pm and 4.00pm (return) on all three days, while on Wednesday and Thursday extra ceremonies will have processions at 5.25pm and 6.30pm (return) as well.
Bath Abbey will be closed to visitors during the day from Monday 1 July to Thursday 4 July, but will be open in the evening from 5pm to 8pm on Monday 1 and Tuesday 2 July and from 7pm to 8pm on Wednesday 3 July. The Abbey shop will open as usual from 10am to 5.30pm with late night opening until 8pm (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday). Tower Tours will run on the hour from 10am to 6pm on Monday, at 5pm, 6pm and 7pm on Tuesday and at 7pm only on Wednesday. The Abbey and Tower will be closed to visitors on Thursday but will resume normal visiting hours on Friday 5 July.
The full list of nine honorary degrees is as follows:
Mr Anthony Best- Doctor of Engineering
Prof David Spiegelhalter, OBE – Doctor of Science
Sir Peter Ricketts, GCMG – Doctor of Laws
Mr Ron Dennis, CBE – Doctor of Engineering
Mr Malcolm Arnold, OBE – Doctor of Education
Mr Philip Pullman, CBE, FRSL – Doctor of Arts
Prof Michael Otlet – Doctor of Engineering
Sir Stephen Dalton, GCB, ADC – Doctor of Science
Prof Sarah Springman, CBE, FREng – Doctor of Science
See all the information and photographs from the ceremonies.
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