Track athlete Sir Mo Farah and Lord Melvyn Bragg, author and broadcaster best known for ‘In Our Time’, are among nine recipients of honorary degrees by the University of Oxford this year. Other recipients include the former Prime Minister of New Zealand Dame Jacinda Ardern, and Clive Myrie, BBC journalist and presenter.
The esteemed recipients also include Professor Serhii Plokhii, Professor Timothy Snyder, Professor Colm Tóibín, Professor Robert S Langer and Professor Erwin Neher. Professor Plokhii is an extensively published author and historian, recognised for his scholarship on Eastern Europe.
Professor Snyder is an American scholar of the history of Central Europe, Ukraine, the Soviet Union and the Holocaust and is a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.
Professor Tóibín is a novelist and writer whose 2009 novel Brooklyn was adapted for a film starring Saoirse Ronan, while Professor Langer is at MIT who has written over 1,600 articles, now recognised as the most academically cited engineer. Finally, Professor Neher is a German biophysicist who was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1991.
The number of degrees awarded is up this year, with nine degrees awarded compared to six in 2024. Previous recipients include world-renowned Monty Python actor and comedian Sir Michael Palin in 2024 and Val McDermid, a Scottish writer who has sold over 19 million books, in 2023. Their honorary degrees followed undergraduate degrees from Oxford University, however this is not a requirement of recipients.
This year, as the new Chancellor, Lord William Hague will open the ceremony and admit the honorary degrees to the recipients.
The 2025 Encaenia ceremony in which honorary degrees are awarded will be held on Wednesday 25th June. The procession tracks from one college to the Sheldonian Theatre and includes the heads of colleges and university dignitaries. ‘Encaenia’ means festival of renewal and the ceremony is held annually on the Wednesday of ninth week during Trinity term. Students, staff and alumni can register for tickets from 6th May.
