News archive 2009

Honorary recognition for King’s

12 Dec 2008, PR 265/08

Four of the seven 2008 honorary degrees awarded this month by the University of London have been conferred on King’s former staff or students, an outstanding, and possibly unrivalled, achievement.

The latest award was made to Professor Emeritus Peter Marshall FBA FKC who was awarded an honorary Doctor of Literature honoris causa. Professor Marshall is a highly distinguished historian of the Empire and the Commonwealth with many significant publications to his name. He was in the Department of History at King’s from 1959-93, of which 1980-93 was as Rhodes Professor of Imperial History. He has also served as Head of the Department and was President of the Royal Historical Society 1996-2000.

Professor Marshall received his honorary degree at the graduation ceremony for the School of Advanced Study, University of London, on 5 December. It was conferred upon him by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, Sir Graeme Davies.

Professor Sir Roderick Floud, FBA, Dean of the School of Advanced Study, presented Professor Marshall to the Vice-Chancellor and delivered the citation in which he said: ‘Peter is one of the most distinguished of British historians. His contribution to the history of the British Empire and Commonwealth, and to a whole series of related fields, has been recognised in this country and throughout the world.’

Quoting one of Professor Marshall’s PhD students, Professor Floud said: ‘He set the highest standards and exemplified a blend of scholarly rigour, compassion and a commitment to the pursuit of history.’ Professor Floud also noted that Professor Marshall had been a true servant of the University of London.

Professor Rick Trainor, Principal of King’s College London comments: ‘I am absolutely delighted and very proud that four of the seven honorary degrees awarded recently by the University of London have been conferred on people very closely associated with King’s College London. This remarkable achievement highlights and endorses the academic excellence of King’s.’

Earlier in the month three other people with connections to King’s received honorary degrees from the University of London conferred by Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal, Chancellor of the University of London, at the annual Foundation Day ceremony at Senate House.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Laureate, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, former Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, King’s Fellow and alumnus, received an Honorary Doctor of Divinity, some 26 years later than intended.  (The Archbishop was prevented by the apartheid authorities from making the journey to London when the degree was first offered in 1982.)

Leading British contemporary composer and Henry Purcell Professor of Composition at King’s College London (1994-2001) Sir Harrison Birtwistle CH, was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music.

Widely regarded as the ‘father of child psychiatry’, Sir Michael Rutter, Emeritus Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science (Medicine).

For full details: Archbishop Tutu awarded honorary degree

Notes to editors

2008 Kluge Prize
Also two of King’s Honorary Graduates who were conferred with Honorary Degrees of King’s College London at the College’s first full-scale ceremony for awarding its own honorary degrees last month have been awarded the $1 million 2008 Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Study of Humanity.

Historians Professor Peter Brown, and Professor Romila Thapar received the 2008 Kluge Prize in a ceremony on 10 December at the Library of Congress. They are the sixth and seventh recipients since the Prize’s 2003 inception.

Endowed by Library of Congress benefactor John W. Kluge, the Kluge Prize is unique among all international prizes at the $1 million level in rewarding a very wide range of disciplines including history, philosophy, politics, anthropology, sociology, religion, criticism in the arts and humanities, and linguistics, as well as a great variety of cultural perspectives in the world.

For more information: http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2008/08-225.html

King’s College London
King’s College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher Education2008) 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 150 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 overall annual income of approximately £450 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 – a total unsurpassed by any other university.

The School of Advanced Study
The School of Advanced Study, University of London, is the only institution of its kind in the UK nationally funded for the facilitation and promotion of research in the humanities and social sciences. Located in historic Bloomsbury at the heart of the federal University, the School brings together ten prestigious postgraduate research Institutes to provide a unique research environment, worldclass resources and academic stimulation across and between a wide range of subject fields within its specialist discipline areas. See www.sas.ac.uk for further information.

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

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This information is provided by the Public Relations Department
Tel: 020-7848 3202  Fax: 020-7848 3739  Email: pr@kcl.ac.uk