Broadcast: News items

Chancellor Sanjeev Bhaskar OBE receiving his surprise honorary degree

Actor, comedian and writer Stephen Fry

As the University looks ahead to future graduation ceremonies, the Honorary Degrees Committee is delighted to invite current and former staff and students to help select nominees for honorary degrees and fellowships.

Awarded in recognition of excellence in an academic field or to those who have played an important role in society, honorary degrees and fellowships give us the opportunity to acknowledge those who make an impact in the wider world. This marks our first call for nominations since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and we look forward to hearing from our community about the people who inspire them.

The nomination process, led by the Vice-Chancellor Sasha Roseneil and Honorary Degrees Committee, was recently refreshed and nominations are welcome from all areas of the University community.

In previous years, the University of Sussex has awarded honorary degrees to a wide range of exceptional people including cosmologist Professor Carlos Frenk CBE, BBC journalist Clive Myrie, author Ali Smith, historian Dr Lucy Worsley, actor, comedian and writer Stephen Fry and guitarist Jeff Beck who sadly passed away recently. During summer gradation 2019, a surprise honorary degree was also awarded to Chancellor Sanjeev Bhaskar OBE to mark his 10^th year in the role.

You can take a look at some of our interviews with honorary graduates from 2017, 2018 and 2019.

How to nominate

You can find information about the criteria and the online nomination form on our honorary degrees webpage.

We encourage you to think about our University values of kindness, integrity, inclusion, collaboration and courage when nominating. In line with our Inclusive Sussex approach, we ask that you also think about diversity and representation. For example, for every one woman nominated, the committee typically receives two nominations for men.

Nominations should be submitted via the online form on the Honorary Degrees Committee webpage - a downloadable version of the form is also available to help with compiling the required information. Completed forms need to be submitted by Friday 10 February 2023 for consideration at the next meeting of the Honorary Degrees Committee in late February 2023, ahead of summer graduation ceremonies in 2023. Nominations are still welcome after this date, but will be considered for the next ceremonies. .

All nominations should be kept confidential, including from the nominee, until Senate approval has been given and the nominee has accepted the award.

If you have any questions about nominations, or the Honorary Degrees Committee process, please contact: Zoe Varney-Burch (zoevb@sussex.ac.uk).