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University of Reading

Honorary degrees 2010

Wednesday, 16 June 2010

Professor Janet Beer

Professor Janet Beer will receive an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters

At the graduation ceremonies in July this year the following are to be awarded honorary degrees:

Professor Janet Beer - Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters

Professor Janet Beer will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters at the 12 noon ceremony on Thursday 1 July 2010.

Professor Beer graduated from the University of Reading with a BA in English in 1978, and has since gone on to make a significant contribution to the Higher Education sector. She is the current Chair of the steering group for Teaching Quality Information and the National Student Survey (NSS), which all students participate in each year to give feedback on their university experience.

In August 2009, Professor Beer became Chair of the University Alliance group and was one of two advisers to the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Skills. She also sits on the boards of a number of organisations, including the Higher Education Policy Institute and the Higher Education Academy and is a member of the Financial Sustainability Strategy Group (HEFCE).

Alison Carnwath - Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws

Ms Alison Carnwath will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws at the 12 noon ceremony on Friday 2 July 2010.

Since graduating from the University of Reading in 1975 with a BA in German and Economics, Ms Carnwath has had a varied and distinguished career. She spent 25 years as an investment banker, and sat on the boards of a number of companies, including Nationwide and Arcadia.

Now, since joining Land Securities, one of Britain's biggest property firms, in 2004 as a non-executive director, she is Chair of the company, meaning that she is also one of only three females currently heading up a FTSE 100 organisation. In addition, Alison Carnwath is a patron of the Woolf collection in the British Library, and is on the devel­opment board of the Royal Society of Arts, and the Healing Foundation.