Meet this year’s honorary graduates

This year’s 16 honorary graduates have been announced by UEA Vice Chancellor Professor David Richardson.

He said: “They are an impressive group of artists, writers, business and community leaders who I hope will inspire this year’s graduates and encourage their ambitions for their own future careers.”

The impressive list includes Father Ted and IT Crowd creator Graham Linehan, who will be receiving an Honorary Doctorate of Letters, as well as Radio 4 Women’s Hour presenter Dame Jenni Murray and actor and director Samuel West, who’s parents both hold honorary degrees from UEA already.

Interestingly, some of this years’ honorary graduates are already real graduates, including comedian Arthur Smith who graduated from Comparative Literature in 1976.

Smith, who was also chairman of the poetry society during his time at UEA, was delighted with the news.

He said: “I am delighted to be coming back again to UEA which made me what I am. I am also looking forward to wearing a silly hat.”

Author Erica Wagner, who will also be honoured at graduation, added: “I should add that UEA has played an enormous role in the course of my life, as I met my husband…on our MA in Creative Writing there.”

Other soon-to-be double grads include John Boyne, author of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, who studied Creative Writing at UEA and was awarded the Curtis Brown prize, and Dominic Christian, who studied History here and established the Dominic Christian Scholarship.

But most importantly, Radio 1 DJ superstar Greg James will be among the honorary grads this year.

If you were lucky enough to score tickets to Radio 1’s Big Weekend this weekend you may get the chance to grab a selfie with him. He studied Drama at UEA and was Station Manager of Livewire 1350 in his final year, 2006.

Recently, he opened the Student Union’s newly refurbished Post Office during UEA’s 50th anniversary celebration weekend in 2013 and will receive an Honorary Doctorate of Letters.

We’re just as excited as he is

UEA have made some interesting choices on who to give these degrees to in the past, the long list includes, Norwich City Football Club (2005) and Comic Relief (2001) as well as Sir Bob Geldolf (2004), Sir David Frost (2004) and The Baroness Amos (2009).

If you missed out on anyone interesting this year, you can nominate better celebrities next year here.