News archive 2008

King’s confers first Honorary Degree

07 Feb 2008, PR 27/08

Helen Suzman DBE, one of the 20th century’s leading public figures, who for many years represented the only real opposition to apartheid within the all-white Parliament of South Africa, has been awarded the first Honorary Degree awarded by King’s College London.


At this historic ceremony, held at the Brenthurst Library in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Marquess of Douro, Chairman of King’s College London Council, conferred an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws of King’s College London on Helen Suzman in front of an audience of distinguished guests, alumni and friends of the College.

Among those present at the ceremony were: Mrs Brigid Oppenheimer, Mr and Mrs Nicky Oppenheimer, The Most Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane, Professor L Nongxa, and Nadine Gordimer.

See link to the South Africa Times

Lord Douro, said: ‘On this very special occasion I would like to congratulate our new honorary graduate and to welcome her into the King’s community and to what we hope will be a long and rewarding association with the College.’

The College gained degree awarding powers from the Privy Council in 2006. Previously, the College awarded degrees of the University of London under a delegated authority as did all other colleges of the University. From this year King’s is starting to award its own degrees.

Honorary Degrees of King’s College London are awarded to individuals who are of conspicuous merit as demonstrated by their outstanding academic or intellectual contribution to their field.

Distinguished humanitarian

The Principal of King’s College London, Professor Rick Trainor, comments: ‘It is highly appropriate that King’s, with its commitment to service to society, and its internationalism, should confer its first honorary degree on one of the world’s most distinguished humanitarians, Helen Suzman.’

Helen Suzman, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was elected to Parliament in 1953 as MP for the Johannesburg constituency of Houghton. In 1959 she was one of a group of 12 liberal MPs who broke away from the United Party and subsequently formed the Progressive Party, which had a policy of extending rights to all South Africans and later advocated universal adult suffrage.

In the general election of 1961 Helen Suzman was the only Progressive MP to retain her seat, and from then until 1974 she was the only MP who consistently and unequivocally opposed apartheid. She also took up the causes of the many disenfranchised people who asked for her help.

Since retiring as an MP in 1989 she has served as President of the South African Institute of Race Relations, as a member of the Electoral Commission that supervised South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994, and as a member of the South African Human Rights Commission. She is patron-in-chief of the Helen Suzman Foundation, which works to safeguard and strengthen South Africa’s democracy and focuses on issues such as poverty, unemployment, crime and disease.

Helen Suzman has received many honorary doctorates from universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale and Witwatersrand. She has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and has received many awards recognising her contributions to human rights and to liberty. In 1989 she was made a Dame of the British Empire – a rare honour for someone not a British citizen, and in 1997 she received the Order of Merit (Gold) for South Africa from President Mandela.

South Africa is home to some of the College’s most distinguished alumni, including: the Most Reverend Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Laureate and former Archbishop of Cape Town);  the Most Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane (former Archbishop of Cape Town), and Professor Barney Pityana (Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of South Africa). Also, King’s has several long-term research partnerships in South Africa, for example in the fields of HIV, children’s dentistry and the digitizing of Archbishop Tutu’s archives.

[Photo: Helen Suzman DBE, taken by Clive Hassall Photography, Johannesburg, South Africa]



Notes to editors

King’s College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher 2007) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King’s has 19,700 students from more than 140 countries, and 5,400 employees. King’s has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. The College is in the top group of UK universities for research earnings and has an annual income of approximately £400 million. An investment of £500 million has been made in the redevelopment of its estate.

King’s has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, social sciences, the health sciences, natural sciences and engineering, and has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe and is home to five Medical Research Council Centres - more than any other university.



Further information
Melanie Gardner,Senior Public Relations Officer, Public Relations Department,
King's College London Tel: 020 7848 3073;  email: melanie.gardner@kcl.ac.uk






Next:
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