University Honorary Degrees July 2011

Distinguished stage and screen actor Sir Donald Sinden, author and poet Vikram Seth and BBC political correspondent Mark Mardell are among those who this month have received honorary degrees from the University.

Others receiving honorary degrees at ceremonies at Canterbury and Rochester cathedrals included Oscar-winning musician and composer Anne Dudley and well-known science writer and broadcaster Dr Simon Singh.

Sir Donald has enjoyed a long and successful career on stage and screen, appearing in many notable Royal Shakespeare Company productions as well as being well-known for television roles including the English butler Robert in Two's Company and Sir Joseph Channing in Judge John Deed. He was knighted in 1997.

Born in Calcutta, award-winning writer Vikram Seth has had a range of fiction and non-fiction work published, including novels A Suitable Boy (1993) and A Suitable Girl (2013) and non-fiction family memoir Two Lives (2005). Among many prizes and awards have been the WH Smith Literary Award in 1994 for A Suitable Boy.

BBC north America editor Mark Mardell is an alumnus of the University of Kent. He has covered British politics from the fall of Thatcher to Blair's last election victory as a political correspondent, Newsnight Political editor, BBC Chief Political Correspondent and diarist for This Week.

Anne Dudley has composed and produced soundtracks for dozens of award-winning films and TV shows, and was a founding member of the Art of Noise. She has contributed string arrangements to many classic albums including ABC's The Lexicon of Love and Robbie Williams' Reality Killed the Video Star. She won an Oscar for The Full Monty in 1998.

Dr Simon Singh is an author, journalist and TV producer, specialising in science and mathematics. His latest book is Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial which he co-authored with Edzard Ernst, the world’s first professor of complementary medicine.

Other University of Kent alumni to receive honorary doctorates at the ceremonies were Professor Martin Daunton FBA, Master, Trinity Hall, Cambridge; Ursula Brennan, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence; and Dr Alan Hearne, Chief Executive of international consultancy the RPS Group.

The list of those who received honorary degrees was completed by Professor Dr Paul van Cauwenberge, Rector of Ghent University; Stevie Spring, Chief Executive Officer of international special-interest media group Future plc; the Right Hon the Baroness Hale of Richmond, who was the first woman Law Lord and is a Justice of the Supreme Court; and Joanna Motion, Vice President for International Operations at the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

For more see: Honorary Graduates 2011

Contact: pressoffice@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 12:15pm 26 July 2011