The Information Office, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9RH.

Lord Attenborough, the new Chancellor of the University of Sussex, will confer degrees on students graduating from the University at the summer ceremonies to be held at the Brighton Centre. Lord Attenborough was elected as Chancellor by the University Court earlier this year and this summer's graduation is the first ceremonial occasion over which he will preside. Around 1500 students, their families and friends will attend the Centre on Tuesday 28 July to receive their degrees in person.

The graduation ceremonies also mark a return to Sussex for three former members of the staff of the University who will be receiving honorary degrees. The recently departed Vice-Chancellor, Professor Gordon Conway, who left the University earlier this year to take up the post of President of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters. Dr Paul Nurse, the Director General of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and one of the most celebrated biologists of his generation will receive the degree of Doctor of Science. Dr Nurse was at Sussex between 1979 and 1984. The degree of Doctor of Letters will be awarded to former Sussex Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Professor Barry Supple, who is now the Director of the Leverhulme Trust.

The other distinguished figures to receive honorary degrees are Andrew Davis, Director of Glyndebourne and one of Britain's leading conductors and Dr Jessica Rawson, Warden of Merton College, Oxford.

Morning Ceremony (begins 10.15 am)
Professor Gordon Conway - Doctor of Letters
Dr Paul Nurse - Doctor of Science
Professor Barry Supple - Doctor of Letters

Afternoon ceremony (begins 3 pm)
Andrew Davis - Doctor of Music
Dr Jessica Rawson - Doctor of Letters

Dr Paul Nurse will give the final speech of the morning ceremony and the afternoon ceremony will culminate with a speech by Andrew Davis. This year, for the first time, the music which accompanies the ceremonies will be performed by members of the Dorothy Stringer High School First Orchestra.

Life begins at 60

The afternoon ceremony sees the first two graduates to have completed part-time BA degrees at the University of Sussex. Katherine Storr, a former teacher, and Shirley Wright, a University employee, started part-time study at the University's Centre for Continuing Education some six years ago and are the first students from the Centre to graduate with a part-time degree (BA in Cultural Studies). Both students are now going on to MA courses - Katherine at Sussex and Shirley at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford.

The Centre for Continuing Education runs two part-time degrees courses - Cultural Studies and Landscape Studies. These programmes represent an aspect of the University's awareness of and response to the changing state of higher education: people now mix home, work and education in increasingly complicated ways, and financial considerations mean that part-time study is the preferred choice for increasing numbers of students. The University encourages lifelong learning and welcomes an increasing regional and local role for higher education institutions.

Shirley Wright (aged 62), who has worked in administration at the University for 22 years, started the part-time degree course when she was beginning to think of retirement. She says, "I find it a powerful notion - that someone, with the right support, can start something in their mid-fifties and end up at retirement age being able to take their life forward into so many new areas."

Note for editors: Shirley Wright can be contacted at the University on 01273 678042.