Honorary Graduates

Born in 1945 as the youngest of four children, as a child, Dr Gandhi was used to his grandfather the Mahatma Gandhi and his associates visiting and staying in his familial home. These precious moments with his grandfather no doubt had a significant impact on his future ambitions.

As an adult, Dr Gandhi went on to read English Literature and History at St Stephen’s College, Delhi University, India. Currently Distinguished Professor of History at Ashoka University, Sonepat, India, he contributes monthly columns to The Telegraph (Kolkata) and The Hindustan Times (New Delhi). He also writes on occasion for The Hindu (Chennai) and Hindustan (New Delhi).

As a member of the Indian Administrative Service, Dr Gandhi has held administrative positions in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and at the national headquarters in Delhi. He was Secretary to the Vice President of India (1985-1987) and Secretary to the President of India (1997-2000).

Positions held by him outside India have included those of Director of The Nehru Centre in the High Commission of India, London, High Commissioner for India in South Africa, Lesotho, Sri Lanka, and Ambassador of India in Norway and Iceland. He was Governor of West Bengal from 2004 to 2009.

Veronica Ryan OBE is an esteemed sculptor, and won the Turner Prize – arguably the most prestigious art accolade in the UK – in December 2022. Prior to this, she studied BA Fine Art at the Bath Academy of Art at Corsham Court (now Bath Spa University’s Bath School of Art, Film and Media, at Locksbrook campus) from 1975-1978. She went on to establish an internationally revered exhibition profile, winning numerous awards across the globe.

Kathy Hinde is a Bath Spa University graduate and audiovisual artist whose practice embraces open methods and evolving processes. Through installations, performances and site specific experiences, she aims to nurture a deeper and more embodied connection to other species and the earth’s systems.

Kathy has toured work across the globe and has received awards including an Ivor Novello, an Honorary Mention at Prix Ars Electronica, a British Composer Award in Sonic Art an ORAM award and a Scottish Award for New Music. Kathy is also a member of Bristol Experimental Expanded Film (BEEF), and a resident at the Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol.

Following her studies at Bath Spa, Kathy has maintained a connection with the University through interdisciplinary research projects across music, art, education and environmental science.

Kate Morton is the CEO of mental health charity Bath Mind. Kate has worked as a senior leader in housing, health, and social care, and has overseen the creation of supportive safe spaces for some of the most disadvantaged in our society.

Diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2008, she made the decision to volunteer for a local mental health charity as part of her recovery. She joined Bath Mind’s Board of Trustees in 2011 and became CEO in 2015. The organisation has grown fourfold under her leadership, expanding its reach, and focusing on university students and young adults across both Bath.

Kate is currently Chair of Bath’s 3SG, and leads on local innovative community projects.

With more than 25 years’ experience in the information assurance and security domain, Chris Crowther works at C-Suite level leading several cyber, information protection and resilience challenges.

Chris has led the delivery of some of the most demanding national security programmes in the UK, the US and EMEA, operating at the very highest levels of government. Where possible, he shares his knowledge and experience with Bath Spa University, the US National Defence University and UK Defence.

A Bath Spa University graduate, journalist, broadcaster and author based in Manchester, Carl has spent his postgraduate years writing for the BBC, the Guardian, VICE, NME, GQ and BuzzFeed and The Athletic.

He co-authored Marcus Rashford’s book You Are a Champion (Macmillan). The book was WHSmith’s Book of the Year, and won Best Overall Book of the Year at the 2022 The British Book Awards.

Andrew is a landscape architect whose work explores the reconnection between people and nature. He started his company, Grant Associates, in 1997 and it is now an international design studio with offices in Bath and Singapore. He uses creative ecological design to find solutions to climate change, biodiversity loss and improving human quality of life, health and wellbeing.

He has previously been awarded the title of RSA Royal Designer for Industry in recognition of his pioneering global work. He is an Honorary Fellow of the RIBA, Chair of the Bathscape Landscape Partnership and a member of the Bath World Heritage Site Advisory Board. He is also co-founder of the Bath pop-up festival, Forest of Imagination.

Adam Rutherford is a geneticist, author and broadcaster. He did his first degree at UCL in genetics, his PhD at the Institute of Child Health at Great Ormond St Hospital, which is part of UCL, and is now a lecturer of Biology and Society at UCL.

Adam is a regular on BBC Radio 4, presenting many documentaries, as well as Start the Week, and the Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry. He has written several books, including most recently Control: the Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics, and the international bestsellers How to Argue With a Racist, and A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived.

Russell joined Teach First as CEO in September 2017, building on more than 15 years developing and promoting leadership in schools. Prior to joining Teach First, Russell was General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and before that worked as a management consultant, helping found Hay Group’s education practice.
 
Russell serves as a trustee of Fair Education Alliance and Teach for All UK Charity Board, as well as participating as a Community Board Member for Digital Poverty Alliance. Russell recently joined the Education Committee at the Royal Society.
 
Russell was awarded a CBE in the New Year Honours List of 2022.

Reeta Chakrabarti is a journalist and presenter for BBC News. She regularly presents the One, Six, and Ten O'Clock News on BBC1 and works on the rolling News Channel. She combines being a studio anchor with reporting from home and abroad.

Before this, Reeta was a correspondent covering politics, home affairs, education, and community affairs. Before moving to television, Reeta spent several years as a radio producer and reporter on BBC Radio 4 and 5 Live.

Reeta is an honorary fellow of Exeter College, Oxford; University College London; and the University of East London. In addition, she has an honorary doctorate from York St John University and, since March 2020, has been Chancellor of YSJ.

Reeta was born in London but brought up in Birmingham, lived in India as a teenager, and in France for a year as a student. She lives in north London with her husband. She has three children.

Professor Samit Ray is a well-known visionary leader, educationist, entrepreneur and change-maker in West Bengal, India. After graduating from Calcutta University in Physics, he started his job as a software engineer but discovered that as a mathematician, he could bring more value with his innovative teaching to young graduates to secure their dream jobs in the public sector.

Thus he started his tutorial home and later founded RICE (Roy's Institute of Competitive Examinations) Group in 1985, which has branches and test centres in most districts of West Bengal. Professor Samit Ray is Chancellor, and founder of Adamas University and founder of two nationally reputed higher secondary schools, namely Adamas International School and Adamas Word School. Professor Samit Ray also founded two charitable trusts- the Sachis Kiran Memorial Trust, named after his late father, and Samit Ray Foundation, which are dedicated to different social and humanitarian works.

Professor Samit Ray had been awarded the 'Honorary Emeritus Professor' degree by Dnipropetrovsk National University of Railway Transport, Ukraine. Professor Samit Ray pursues the goals to transform the lives of young people, making them good human beings and establishing the Bengal as the global centre of excellence in education once again.

Born in Yorkshire, Father Bill M., OSM, joined the ancient Catholic Religious Order, the Friar Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1975 in the Priory of the Servite Order in Kensington, London. He was elected Prior of his Order's London Community of Servite friars in 1976 while pursuing his doctoral studies. Father Bill later served at the Catholic University Chaplain at the University of London and City University. Father Bill was recalled by Order to serve for a second time as Prior of the London Servite friars and later returned to the Oxford Priory. From there, he was appointed Hon Gen Secretary of the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Father Bill came to Bath in 1999 on loan to the Clifton Diocese to serve as Catholic University Chaplain to the two universities in Bath, continuing to serve in both at the request of the Bishop of Clifton for over 20 years. Wearing his traditional friar's 'habit', new students were directed to look on campus for 'the man in black'. Along with his university roles, he became Parish Priest to Ss Peter and Paul in Combe Down, Bath, St Joseph's, Peasedown St John, and Hospital Catholic Chaplaincy to Bath Clinic and St Martin's Hospital, Bath.

While striving to represent his share of the teachings and life based on Catholic tradition and convictions, he has served Catholic students and staff of both Bath universities.

About his days at Bath Spa University, Father Bill said:

"I have felt privileged to enjoy meeting many interesting, good and fun people at Bath Spa and have many happy memories for which to be thankful"

'Any woman who chooses to get involved with the Church of England is crazy!' The words rang in Jan Knott's ears in the mid-80s. Jan was teaching part-time, had three children and was an active partner in her husband's road haulage company. Jan began the challenging journey towards Ordination - a rigorous selection process ratified her vocation.

Three years of training followed, and Jan joined the ranks of waiting women experiencing vigorous and unpleasant opposition. Then the Church of England formally adopted new legislation in 1994; Rev Preb Jan Knott could finally be ordained, Priest. She served in Parishes; as a School Chaplain; became a Rural Dean; a University Chaplain; was given a seat in the Cathedral Church in Wells, and took on various responsibilities where women needed to be. Jan's last full–time post saw her working as Rector of Farmborough, Marksbury and Stanton Prior with three churches and two schools and as Chaplain at Bath Spa University.

At Bath Spa, there were various initiatives to get up and running, and Jan became adept in the art of loitering, engaging with students, staff and visitors. Quite a job, but she loved it. Jan now serves as a 'supply vicar' going where she is needed.

As an alumna, Sarah Liversedge-Platz is no stranger to Bath Spa University, having graduated with a first in Composition. Since then she has gone on, via the BBC, to develop a successful music publishing business and has received a number of music industry awards.

Commenting on what it means to be awarded, Sarah Liversedge-Platz said:

"I am so honoured to receive this recognition from an institution that means so much to me. My time at Bath Spa as a music undergraduate was incredibly special. The University is a place that really nurtures and inspires creative minds. It helped me lay foundations that would serve both myself and the songwriters and composers I've worked with throughout my career decades later."

Lord Jonathan Evans is the Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life and sits in the House of Lords as a cross-bencher. Previously, he was the Director General of the Security Service - MI5 - from 2007 to 2013.

He is now a Non Executive Director of Ark Datacentres and chairman of the Public Interest Committee of KPMG UK. He is also a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, Chair of Kent Search and Rescue and a Visiting Professor at King’s College London. He graduated from the University of Bristol with a degree in Classical Studies.

Lord Jonathan Evans was nominated for the award by Allyson MacVean, the University’s Professor of Policing and Criminology and Co-Director for Bath Spa's Centre for Leadership, Ethics and Professional Practice (CLEPP).

Accepting the Honorary Doctorate, Lord Jonathan Evans said:

"I admire the work of the Centre for Leadership, Ethics and Professional Practice at Bath Spa University so I am particularly honoured to be awarded an Honorary Degree by the University."

Footballer Tyrone Mings is captain of Premier League side Aston Villa and represents England on the international stage. He was born and raised in Bath and is a highly respected and inspirational figure in the local community.

Professor Sue Rigby, Vice-Chancellor of Bath Spa University, nominated Mr Mings for this award and said: "I am thrilled to be able to confer the award of Honorary Doctorate of Education to Tyrone Mings. His determination, motivation and success is an inspiration to our students, the local community and any young person who strives to be the best they can be.

"He had a difficult route to the top of his profession, not least being released from a Premier League academy at the age of 16. He did not however let this set him back or dissuade him from achieving his goal.

"Tyrone Mings is an example of never giving up, continuing to work hard and doing things your own way when no other way is presented to you. He is an outstanding and inspiring individual and I heartily welcome him to the Bath Spa University community."

Journalist Damian Carrington is environment editor at The Guardian, which he joined in 2008. Previously he reported on science while at BBC News Online and New Scientist and was a web editor for the Financial Times.

Damian reports on the climate crisis, the destruction of the natural world and pollution. His career has seen him visit all seven continents, including Antarctica and the Amazon, and all five oceans, including the Arctic. In 2019, he reported from the Columbian Andes and from Darfur in Sudan.

His journalism has been recognised by awards from the Association of British Science Writers, the British Society of Magazine Editors, the European Online Journalism awards and others. 

Damian's voice is one of reason and clarity. He balances emotive topics with scientific rigour and presents a clarion call for change in the measured and nuanced manner. He teaches us to wise up and make a difference, and in that his values, his approach and his purpose are deeply consonant with those of Bath Spa University.

Iwan and Manuela Wirth are Presidents and co-Founders of Hauser & Wirth, a leading international gallery of contemporary art and modern masters. Now a global enterprise with galleries in Zurich, London, New York and Somerset, and a new gallery planned in downtown Los Angeles, Hauser & Wirth have built an unparalleled reputation for its dedication to artists, artist estates and for supporting the realisation of ambitious artistic projects. The Wirths are strongly committed to an extensive range of charities supporting the arts, the environment, community and education.

Renowned British photojournalist, Sir Don McCullin, CBE, FRPS, is recognised as one of history’s greatest war photographers. His first reportage on a youth gang in his childhood neighbourhood was published in The Observer in 1959. In 1961, he visited Berlin at the time of the construction by East Germany of the wall to separate it from the capitalist West. He produced his first war assignment for The Observer in 1964, covering the civil war in Cyprus and 1966 began an 18 year collaboration with The Sunday Times Magazine, witnessing numerous conflicts and battlefields in the Congo, Biafra (Nigeria), Israel, Vietnam, Cambodia, Northern Ireland, Bangladesh, Lebanon, El Salvador, and Kurdistan. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including his highly-acclaimed autobiography, Unreasonable Behaviour.

Renowned Chinese violinist who made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2003 and has performed extensively in the USA, Asia and Europe. She has won top honours at the Chinese National Violin Competition and her string quartet won the Chinese National Quartet Competition and the Menuhin prize in the UK. She was also the featured soloist at the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra’s 40th anniversary concert celebrating Gang and Zhanhou’s ‘Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto.

Internationally acclaimed Australian author of seven collections of poetry, four opera librettos, two plays, eleven works of fiction (including three collections of short stories), and a memoir, 12 Edmondstone Street. His work has been widely translated and has received several international awards. In 2000 he was the sixteenth Neustadt Laureat.

Juli Beattie is the Founder Director of The Art Room, a national arts and education charity established in 2002. The Art Room offers art as therapy to children and young people aged five through to 16 who are experiencing challenges and emotional difficulties in their lives. Through The Art Room students can raise their self-esteem, self-confidence and independence enabling them to engage with their learning and development. Juli has taught for over 35 years, working in mainstream and specialist schools, as well as hospitals, and in collaboration with Bath Spa she developed a Postgraduate Certificate in Art Room Practice.

The Booker prize-winning author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies. Mantel is now working on the final book in her trilogy about Thomas Cromwell.

A UK artist who has exhibited work around the world. Randall-Page studied sculpture at Bath Academy of Art, which is now part of Bath Spa University, from 1973-1977.

Headteacher of Weston All Saints Church of England Primary School in the city of Bath for over 25 years. Bull’s link with Bath Spa University spans over 30 years, and she has fulfilled a number of roles at the university, including teacher tutor, and part-time lecturer in Creative, Arts and Dance.

A composer whose music has been regularly commissioned and performed by major orchestras and opera houses worldwide. His works are currently being featured at the Salzburg Festival where his opera Gawain will receive a new production under Ingo Metzmacher.

Former deputy vice-chancellor at Bath Spa University, who was responsible for tailoring our historic campuses to the needs of a modern university.

He trained as an architect, then began his career at Gerald Shenstone and Partners in Bloomsbury in 1974, before moving to Wandsworth Borough Council in 1976. This was followed by a major switch of track when he joined what is now Bath Spa University (then Bath College of Higher Education) as corporation secretary and clerk to the board of governors in 1989. He was appointed assistant director in 1995 and deputy vice-chancellor in 2005.

Asha Sarabhai is highly respected a textile designer. Her passion for her finding contemporary and relevant ways to continue age old traditions of textile design and production led to unique, modern representations of Indian dress.

A collaboration with the celebrated Issey Miyake Design Studio in 1984 led to her designs coming to the attention of the fashion world and following the opening of a retail outlet in London in the 1990s, becoming more widely available to commercial markets.

Born in New Delhi in 1949, she travelled throughout her childhood and studied at the University of Cambridge. The impact of her work in textile design continues to inspire fashion today.

Paul Phillips is Principal and Chief Executive of Weston College situated in North Somerset.  This award winning College has developed from the small £9m College that Paul took over in 2001 to a £30m plus College with campuses across the region.  It regularly features at the top of the league tables for Further Education. 

Dr Phillips was formerly Vice Principal of the largest College in Wales.  His career has included work and consultations for the NHS, MOD and leisure industry.  In addition, he has published research papers related to the cost benefit analysis of education.  Despite running Weston College, Paul is very active in his local community as well as representing the Further Education sector regionally and nationally. 

His most recent involvements include Chair of South Ward Regeneration in Weston-super-Mare, Secretary of the Western Principals’ Group and regional representative of the Principals’ Professional Council.

Professor Brian L Gomes da Costa, JP was Director of Bath College of Higher Education (later Bath Spa University) from September 1985 until March 1997. On retiring from Bath College of Higher Education he increased his longstanding involvement in the magistracy, and began to engage with the NHS; he was appointed chairman of a Mental Health NHS Trust and of a standing committee of a local authority; he was a Member of the UK’s Asylum and Immigration Tribunal for almost a decade to 2008. He remains a presiding panellist on Fitness to Practise Panels at the GMC and also chairs NHS disciplinary appeal panels. Having a strong interest in “regulation”, he also currently serves on the Standards Committee of the Bar Standards Board.

Simon Relph was a leading British film producer. After graduating from King’s College Cambridge, he became an Assistant Director until he was appointed Technical Administrator of the National Theatre. For four years he supervised the move from the Old Vic into the new National Theatre, ending his time there as Production Administrator.

He was Chairman of the British Academy of Film & Television Arts between 2000 and 2002, before becoming Chairman of the David Lean BAFTA Foundation. He served on the British Screen Advisory Council, the Executive Council of Pact, the Council of Royal College of Art, the boards of South West Screen and the Bristol Old Vic, and as a Governor of the British Film Institute.

He was the author of The Relph Report on low budget film production. Simon also held positions as non executive director of Arts Alliance Media, The Brixton Ritzy Cinema, and the Exeter Picturehouse. Simon sadly passed away in October 2016.

Professor Timms has a long association with Bath Spa University, having first trained here as a student teacher in the 1970s. After a distinguished academic career at the universities of of Leicester and Manchester (where he established himself as a notable literary critic, first of the works of Philip Larkin and then as a specialist in American literature).

Professor Timms rejoined the University in the early 1990s as a lecturer in the English Department and then took on a series of managerial positions which led to him becoming Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic). He is an acknowledged national expert on academic quality assurance, and continues to work for other universities and for the Quality Assurance Agency in that capacity.

Sir Graeme was Vice-Chancellor of the University of London until 2010. He was Principal of the University of Glasgow from 1995 to 2003. He was Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England from 1991 until 1995 having been Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool from 1986 to 1991.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is now the Chair of the Higher Education Policy Institute.

He is an English educator who was Rector of the University of the Arts, London. Stubbs served for six years as Chief Executive of the Inner London Education Authority. Following that, he was Chief Executive of the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council. From 1992 to 1996 as chief executive of the Further Education Funding Council for England.

A British television director whose directing credits include television comedies Brass Eye, Smack the Pony, Green Wing, Absolutely Fabulous and the American series Community, Parks and Recreation, Happy Endings and Workaholics. He is also a Bathonian, something we are very proud of.

Tom McCaw served as Land Steward for the Duchy of Cornwall from 1988 to 1998, with responsibility for the Duchy’s rural properties in the Bath area, Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.

Mr McCaw is a trustee of Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and of Community First (Wiltshire’s Rural Development Council). Highlights of his career include the purchase of Highgrove House and its conversion into a home suitable for His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and working closely with the University to promote and develop the Newton Park campus.

Joanna MacGregor is regarded as one of the world’s most wide-ranging and innovative musicians, and was Artistic Director of the Bath International Music Festival from 2006 - 2012. As a pianist she had enjoyed performing at the MusicFest many times before playing music ranging from jazz and world to classical. 

Her programming reflects her interest in all genres of music, and often inspires brand new collaborations: bringing musicians together with contemporary art and multimedia, poetry, storytelling and film, and reaching out to as wide an audience as possible.