Distinguished personalities to be honoured at our graduation ceremonies

5 July 2017

As we celebrate the success of our graduating students at our summer graduation ceremonies from 11-14 July, the achievements of six distinguished individuals who have excelled in their fields will be recognised as they receive honorary degrees from our University.

Following on from our January graduation ceremonies, in which we honoured award-winning children’s writer Anne Fine OBE and poet Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze MBE, we will honour Michael Attenborough CBE, son of the late Richard Attenborough, who took over as patron of the University's Attenborough Arts Centre from his father at the opening of its new gallery space last year. He will be made a Distinguished Honorary Fellow, the highest honour that the University can bestow.

He joins an illustrious roster of distinguished individuals honoured in this year’s ceremonies that also includes Professor Surinder Sharma, co-director of the University's DICE (Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement) unit; Chas Bishop, Chief Executive of the National Space Centre in Leicester; Leicester alumnus and Honorary Professor Sir Nicholas Green QC, a judge of the Queen’s Bench Division; Professor Eugene Stanley, William F. Warren Distinguished Professor at Boston University and a formative figure in the area of econophysics; and Professor Gordon Campbell, Fellow in Renaissance Studies at the University of Leicester.

They will receive their honorary degrees at the ceremonies at De Montfort Hall before an audience of graduating students and their families.