September 11, 2014 9.38 am This story is over 113 months old

Stars join University of Lincoln graduation ceremonies

Graduation day: Students and some famous names were honoured at the University of Lincoln graduation ceremonies.

Some 3,500 University of Lincoln students are graduating this week at Lincoln Cathedral, along honorary degrees, including the Oscar-winning creator of Downton Abbey, a pioneering entrepreneur and philanthropist, a world-record-breaking singer and a leading legal commentator.

Celebrated actor, writer, director, producer and member of the House of Lords, Julian Fellowes, collected an Honorary Doctorate of Arts at the ceremony on September 10. He is much distinguished for his multi-award-winning television series Downton Abbey.

Dame Stephanie Shirley became an Honorary Doctor of Science during the ceremonies. Having arrived in the UK as an unaccompanied child refugee in 1939, Dame Stephanie has gone on to become one of the country’s most celebrated entrepreneurs and philanthropists.

They were joined by Andrea Spyropoulos, the President of the Royal College of Nursing, Barbara Dickson OBE, Scotland’s best-selling female album singer, Joshua Rozenberg, the acclaimed legal commentator and journalist, Chris Warmoth, Senior Vice President for the Carlsberg Group, and Professor Claire Cross from the University of York.

Roger Buttery, Trustee of the University of Lincoln’s Students’ Union and former member of the University’s Governing Body, also accepted an Honorary Fellowship.

This year’s ceremonies will also include the first cohort of BSc (Hons) Biology degree students to graduate from the University of Lincoln’s School of Life Sciences. The degree builds on strengths in animal science, animal behaviour, and biomedical and bioveterinary sciences.

From September 2014, the course will be based in the newly opened Joseph Banks Laboratories in the Lincoln Science and Innovation Park.

Among graduands now planning to build on their university education is Katherine Beadle (21) from Shillington, Hertfordshire.

Katherine is beginning a PhD at Rothamsted Research and will be studying bee toxicogenomics, with the ultimate aim of developing bee-safe insecticides for pest control.

Katherine said: “The course helped me to develop a range of research skills which are widely applicable, and have increased the number of opportunities available to me.

“The careers service has been excellent and has definitely helped me get this PhD studentship. Because Lincoln is smaller than other universities I felt that I got more support here than I would have at other institutions.”

First-class graduate Lilly Harvey (21) from Northamptonshire, will be returning to the University of Lincoln to undertake a Masters by Research in Ecology.

She said: “Looking back, I believe that coming to Lincoln was the best thing that could have happened to me.

“My favourite experience was going on the overseas field course in the Santa Lucίa Cloud Forest Reserve in Ecuador. I have loved that we have been able to learn a varied range of biology, from medical, human biology to plant sciences, evolution and behaviour.”