Over 1,300 students graduated in Roehampton’s January graduation last week after successfully completing their degrees.
The ceremonies took place at the Royal Festival Hall, at London’s Southbank Centre. Degrees were presented by our Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jean-Noel Ezingeard, and others.
Over 4,000 people attended the ceremonies. In addition to the graduates collecting their degrees, honorary awards were also presented to June Sarpong OBE, broadcaster and BBC’s Creative Director, Miranda Wolpert MBE, Director of Mental Health at Wellcome, and British minister Lord Leslie Griffiths.
June Sarpong is a renowned broadcaster, activist, and author. In 2019, she was appointed to the BBC as its first ever Director of Creative Diversity. In her role, she is responsible for improving the BBCs on air-talent portrayal and developing strategies to support both on air and product talent representation and portrayal across the BBC and its partners. Throughout her career, June has presented with the likes of Will Smith, for Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday celebrations, and has hosted an array of popular television programmes. In 2005, when she was a host on Channel 4’s show “T4”, was given unprecedented access to Prime Minister Tony Blair, on a T4 special: When Tony met June.
Professor Miranda Wolpert is the Director of Mental Health at Wellcome, a global charitable foundation which support science to solve urgent health challenges. Miranda leads on all Wellcome’s work on mental health, where their vision is a world where no one is held back by mental health problems. Miranda worked for many years as a clinical psychologist in the NHS and in schools. In 2017, she was awarded an MBE for her services to children and young people’s mental health. Between 2012 and 2019, she was NHS England’s National Informatics Advisor for Children and Young People’s Mental Health.
Lord Leslie Griffiths is a British Methodist minister and politician. He was President of the British Methodist Conference, 1994-1995. In 2004, at the nomination of Prime Minister Tony Blair, he became a working peer in the House of Lords. His front bench duties were carried out as the Labour Party’s spokesperson for the Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport department.
The three ceremonies took place on one day, with graduates from every University department and at all levels.