Summer graduation celebrations for University of Reading students
Release Date 01 July 2011
If you require practical information about this year's ceremony please visit the graduation website
This week, more than 3,500 students graduate from the University of Reading in the Great Hall at its historic London Road campus.
Always a special time in the University's calendar, there's even more reason for celebration this year with the news that employability for Reading graduates has reached its highest point for a decade, with 70% of 2010Reading graduates in graduate jobs or further study.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Gordon Marshall said: "After receiving education of the highest standard our 2011 graduands will join the 150,000 people who have graduated from Reading from 180 countries. Many of them will go on to achieve great things in areas such as biological sciences, food and nutritional sciences, agriculture, archaeology, law and climate change research to name but a few. Congratulations to all and we wish them the very best for the future."
At this year's ceremony there will bea live web stream so that students, friends and families can enjoy the celebration.
You can alsodiscover what last year's graduates thought of their time at Reading
This year's graduation ceremony will also see two leading figures from the worlds of political history and animal science awarded honorary degrees.
Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield (Professor Peter Hennessy, FBA) will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by Professor Tony Downes, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the 12.00 noon ceremony on Friday 8 July.
Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London. Between 1988 and 1994 held a Visiting Fellowship at the University of Reading where he taught both History and Politics. Elevated to the House of Lords in October 2010 as a non-political peer, he sits as a cross-bencher.
A graduate of St John's College, Cambridge, and a Kennedy Memorial Scholar at Harvard, Peter Hennessy is a Fellow of the British Academy. Before joining the School of History at Queen Mary in 1992, Peter Hennessy was a journalist for twenty years with spells on The Times, Financial Times and The Independent. He was also a regular presenter of the BBC Radio 4 Analysis programme. Co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary British History in 1986, he won the Times Higher Education Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.
Dr Christie Peacock will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science by Professor Michael Gooding, Head of the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development.
Christie Peacock is a graduate of the University of Reading (BSc Agriculture 1980, and PhD 1984). Her career has been devoted to improving the livelihoods of resource-poor livestock farmers in rural Africa and Asia. Dr Peacock is an international authority on goats and has published widely on the subject.
Chairman of Sidai Africa Ltd, Africa's first livestock franchising social enterprise based in Kenya, and a board member of the newly formed FARM-Africa Enterprises, Christie Peacock has recently stepped down as Chief Executive of the charity FARM-Africa after eleven years in post. She serves on the Steering Group of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development; and is a Fellow of the Society of Biology, of the Royal Agricultural Societies, and of the Society of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce.
The University of Reading's Summer Graduation Ceremony will be held on 6,7 and 8 July 2011.
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For all media enquiries please contact James Barr, University of Reading Press Officer on 0118 378 7115 or by email on j.w.barr@reading.ac.uk