Find information on former Honorary graduates from previous years.
Honorary Award recipients
Since 1966 the University of Bradford has awarded Honorary Degrees and Outstanding Contribution Awards to:
- outstanding individuals in recognition of their academic work and endeavour,
- their contribution to their chosen profession or field of activity,
- their contribution to the University, City or wider region,
- their ability to act as a role model reflecting the University’s values.
Nominations for honorary degrees and fellowships can be submitted at any time and are considered by the University Honorary Awards Committee twice each year.
Read our blog about how we have worked and collaborated with Honorary Award Recipients.
Our most recent Honorary Award recipients
Karl Bates
Karl has been awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University in recognition of his significant commitment to the University and impact this has made.
Karl Bates has been a Civil Servant for over 40 years and a qualified Internal Auditor for over 30 of those. As such, he's a firm believer in efficient and effective public services which deliver both impact and value for the taxpayer. Most of his career has been spent working across a wide range of functions in mainly large Government Departments and their associated agencies and bodies.
Karl is passionate about Higher Education and firmly believes that everyone who wishes to should have the opportunity to go to university regardless of background or social status.
Having developed a career around audit, risk and governance, he decided in the mid-2000s that it was time to broaden his horizons and to share his professional knowledge and experience. Karl has worked with the University of Bradford on its University Council, Audit, Committee, Ethics Committee and various other committees/groups for the past 15 years - initially as a lay member and latterly as a Pro Chancellor. He is also a past Director of the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors (UK & Ireland).
Karl is a keen advocate for, and supporter of, the City of Bradford having been a resident here for the past 60 plus years.
Listen to Karl's oration and speech from the Graduation Ceremony.
Professor Adeeba Malik CBE DL
Adeeba has been awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University in recognition of her commitment to supporting disadvantaged communities and enabling social cohesion..
Adeeba Malik is the current High Sheriff of West Yorkshire (the first ethnic minority female) and a visiting professor at York St John University and a Deputy Lieutenant of West Yorkshire. She has been working at the award-winning Bradford-based national charity QED Foundation since 1992, where she is Deputy Chief Executive, designing and developing innovative solutions to the challenges faced by disadvantaged ethnic minority communities and encouraging politicians, civil servants and leaders of large private, public and third sector organisations to adopt similar approaches and improve social mobility.
Adeeba is currently a member of the FCDO UK-Pakistan Advisory Council; an advisor for the Home Office’s Strategic Race Advisory Board; and serves on the State Honours Committee. She has held 14 ministerial appointments working with departments across Whitehall for the governments of all seven prime ministers from 1997 to the present yet has still found time to sit on numerous voluntary committees.
Adeeba was born in Bradford, is a passionate advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion and a high-profile champion of ethnic minorities, women and northern communities. She was awarded the MBE in 2004 and the CBE in 2015.
Career highlights have included being named by the Yorkshire Post as one of the top 20 inspiring women from the region in the past 70 years, alongside Betty Boothroyd, Helen Sharman and Dame Barbara Hepworth. As a board member for Bradford Culture Company, she helped to secure UK City of Culture status in 2025.
Listen to Adeeba's oration and speech from the Graduation Ceremony.
Nirmal Singh MBE
Nirmal received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University in recognition of his significant commitment to the communities in Bradford, and to the University.
Nirmal Singh arrived in the UK in 1967 as a 15-year-old boy as an “Economic Migrant” and soon secured a job in Bradford, manufacturing duvets where he learnt valuable lessons about listening, learning, and embracing challenges. Following the death of the company's owner, Nirmal jumped at the opportunity to take over the business.
Along with his wife, Harmesh Kaur, Nirmal worked tirelessly to make the business a success. Their dedication soon paid off, and their duvet products became well-known across the UK within the Asian community. The business exceeded all expectations, not just financially but also in reputation for quality service.
Nirmal chose to reinvest his profits into rundown properties, renovating them with his wife. This venture grew into a successful property development business, now known as a multi-million-pound enterprise, praised for its reputable developments in West Yorkshire.
Nirmal’s success is a result of hard work, honesty, and integrity, supported by a dedicated family. Nirmal especially credits his wife who has been the backbone and key to their family's successes.
Listen to Nirmal's oration and speech from the Graduation Ceremony.
Luke Ambler
Luke received an Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of his dedication to raising awareness and support for men's mental health, and the significant difference this is making locally and nationally.
Luke Ambler is a former professional rugby player, dad, entrepreneur, award-winning mental health campaigner, charity chairman, and motivational speaker.
Luke is the driving force behind ANDYSMANCLUB, a charitable organisation that provides a place for men to come together in a safe environment, to talk about issues and problems they have faced or are currently facing. The club was formed by Luke and his mother-in-law Elaine after his brother-in-law Andy, took his own life aged 23, in a bid to prevent others from going through the same tragedy.
The club, with its slogan "it's okay to talk", started in early 2016 in Halifax with a first meeting of nine men. ANDYSMANCLUB aims to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health and create a judgment-free, confidential space where men can be open about the storms in their lives through peer-to-peer support groups. The group has now expanded across the country to over 200 groups, used weekly by over 4500 men. The groups are led by an army of 1200+ facilitators, with the vast majority of these having first interacted with ANDYSMANCLUB when they came through the door as a service user themselves.
As part of Luke’s mission to raise awareness and support for mental health, he also delivers talks and workshops for businesses and schools, founded an online community called Luke’s Mindtribe, and has launched The Bee You Journal, a two in one journal which provides tools, techniques and strategies to support mental health.
Listen to Luke's oration and speech from the Graduation Ceremony.
Jo Quinton-Tulloch
Jo received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University in recognition of demonstrating significant impact on the City and beyond, and contribution to STEM in partnership with the University.
Joanne Quinton-Tulloch’s 27 year career in museums started as an Explainer in the Learning Team at the Science Museum in London. She went on to deliver world class galleries, exhibitions and innovative programmes in the Science Museum. In 2000 she moved to Cornwall to lead the curatorial and exhibitions teams that created and launched the National Maritime Museum Cornwall and establish many of the operational requirements for the new Museum.
Jo moved to Bradford to revision the National Media Museum, becoming Director in 2013. Her focus there has been to forge new sustainable partnerships across the city and region which reposition the Museum as a centre of excellence in STEM learning and explore new ways to work with local communities. As part of this focus, Jo led a major relaunch of the renamed and rebranded National Science and Media Museum in spring 2017 and opened a new Wonderlab gallery. The next phase will be two new permanent galleries to showcase the museum’s world-class collections, that will launch as part of Bradford City of Culture 2025.
Jo has an honours degree in Biological Sciences from the University of East Anglia and a Master’s in Science Communication from Imperial College. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, a Board Member for: The UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC); the National Coal Mining Museum for England (ex officio) and an Advisory Board Member for the National Videogame Museum.
Listen to Jo's oration and speech from the Graduation Ceremony.
Dame Maggie Aderin
Maggie received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science in recognition of her significant achievements in the field of space science and her commitment to making education accessible to all.
Dame Maggie Aderin is a space scientist whose passion is presenting science to general audiences and demonstrating that you ‘don’t need a brain the size of a small planet’ to understand, participate in and enjoy science. She studied at Imperial College, London, obtaining a Physics degree and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. She has worked in both industrial and academic environments, on missions including the James Webb Space Telescope and various satellites designed to monitor climate change.
Maggie is the CEO of Science Innovation Ltd., which she founded in 2004. Here, she conducts public engagement activities, sharing her love of space and encouraging underrepresented groups to enter STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). To date, she has given talks to over 500,000 people globally.
She is a Bafta-nominated television presenter and won a Women in Film & Television New Talent Award. She co-hosts the world’s longest-running science program, “The Sky at Night.”
Maggie is an author, with her recent children’s book “Am I Made of Stardust” winning a Royal Society book prize. She won an Institute of Physics gold medal, a Yale “Out of the Box Thinker” award and was named “Woman of the Year in Innovation” in 2019. She is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and an ambassador for "Made by Dyslexia" and the "International Rescue Committee.”
Listen to Maggie's oration and speech from the Graduation Ceremony.
Dr Louise Newson
Louise received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Health in of the significant impact she has made on research and education in relation to perimenopause and the menopause.
Louise Newson is a physician, menopause specialist and member of the UK Government’s Menopause Taskforce. She is an award-winning doctor, educator, and author, committed to increasing awareness and knowledge of perimenopause and menopause. Described as the “medic who kickstarted the menopause revolution”, she has empowered a generation of women to have a greater understanding, choice and control over their treatment, bodies and mind.
Dr Louise is a member of the Royal College of Physicians (1998), a Fellow of the Royal College of GPs (2016) and Visiting Fellow at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge University.
She is the founder of the free award-winning balance menopause support app, which has had more than one million downloads to date, and the balance-menopause website. She hosts the weekly Dr Louise Newson podcast, which has been ranked the No.1 medical podcast in the UK, and is a Sunday Times bestselling author.
In 2018 Dr Louise founded Newson Health in response to difficulties many women experience in obtaining perimenopause and menopause treatment. A portion of Newson Health’s profits fund much-need research and education, the balance app and numerous free resources available to people globally. She has also developed a menopause education programme for healthcare professionals which has been downloaded by over 33,000 clinicians globally.
She works with numerous organisations raising awareness of the needs of perimenopausal and menopausal women and regularly appears in the media as an expert in women’s hormone health.
Listen to Louise's oration and speech from the Graduation Ceremony.
Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale
Saorsa-Amatheia received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University in recognition of her significant contribution to equality and diversity education, on a local and national scale.
Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale has spent her adult life working within equality and diversity. As a student she was on the NUS NEC with responsibility for both equality and mature students. After that she joined the civil service where, alongside her duties as an EO in DWP, she has been the chair of the Jobcentre plus Gender staff network as well as that for the DWP as a whole. In that latter capacity she was recognised with the national excellency in diversity award from the DWP for her work around women’s health. More recently she has co-chaired the DWP LGBT+ staff network and is currently the Cross Civil service LGBT+ staff networks co-chair.
Also an active trade unionist, she is the national Chair of PCS Proud the union LGBT+ section, has been the National Trans representative of PCS Proud for many years, and runs the union Trans training course for union representatives. She has represented PCS for several years on the TUC National LGBT+ committee and was nominated by them to talk at the TUC women’s conference on joint work on women’s and LGBT+ rights. She was also asked by the TUC to speak at an international conference on LGBT+ rights and the rise of far-right ideology.
She was also a trustee for six years of the local LGBT+ charity, the Equity Partnership where she helped institute West Yorkshires first Trans Day of Remembrance event working with Bradford Council. She then worked with both Huddersfield and Leeds on starting similar events.
Listen to Saorsa-Amatheia's oration and speech from the Graduation Ceremony.
Varaidzo 'Vee' Kativhu
Vee received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University in of the significant impact she has made to the inclusion of underrepresented groups in higher education, and her outstanding contribution to diversity and female empowerment.
Varaidzo (Vee) Kativhu is a Girls’ Education Activist, a Young Leader for the SDGs at the United Nations, and the Founder of Empowered By Vee. Her work predominantly focuses on widening access to education for students from underrepresented, underserved, and underprivileged backgrounds while elevating youth voices in institutions and decision processes that directly impact their lives.
A graduate of Oxford and Harvard, Vee aims to make higher education more inclusive and diverse through a holistic empowerment model that equips disempowered students with tangible and practical skills to support them during their transitional stages, from applications to graduation. Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Vee has an acute understanding of the cultural, socio-economic, and practical barriers that prevent girls from achieving their academic potential. Her activism work has a strong emphasis on the intersection between SDG 4 'Quality Education' and SDG 5 'Gender Equality'.
Vee has harnessed the power of social media, as a content creator and YouTuber, to inspire a combined audience of 400,000 followers to tap into their potential. In her role as a Global Partnership for Education Youth Leader, Vee advocates for education policy change in the UK, as well as internationally. In recognition of her work, she is a recipient of the UK Prime Minister’s Point of Lights Award, one of BBC’s 100 Women 2023, and a Diana Legacy Award holder. These accolades are a testament to her commitment to widening access to quality education for every child, everywhere.
Listen to Vee's oration and speech from the Graduation Ceremony.
