Honorary Graduates

Howard Hodgkin CH, BE

One of Britain’s most influential and respected artists, Howard Hodgkin’s work has been shown in galleries around the world and in 1985 he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale and won the Turner Prize. In 1992 he was knighted for his services to the arts. Howard was first a pupil and then later a tutor at the Bath Academy of Art. While a pupil he was taught by Clifford and Rosemary Ellis who ran the Academy, as well as William Scott and Peter Lanyon. As a tutor he worked alongside fellow painters Michael Craig-Martin, Robyn Denny, John Ernest and Adrian Heath between 1950 and 1954.

Mary Berry CBE

One of the UK's best-known and respected cookery writers and TV cook. At the age of 18 she trained at the Bath College of Home Economics, followed by a Paris Cordon Bleu course and she is a qualified teacher. She has written more than 70 cookery books since her first was published in 1970 and has sold more than five million. She has hosted several television series for the BBC and been a judge on The Great British Bake Off since 2010.

Manolo Blahnik CBE

Manolo Blahnik's shoe designs have been worn by women all over the world for almost 40 years. Blahnik began his career in 1973 on the advice of a US Vogue Editor Diana Vreeland. The brand is known for elaborate and classic designs and prides itself on the highest level of quality and comfort. It is currently present in 23 countries world-wide. In 2007 he was awarded the CBE for services to the British fashion industry.

Professor Ian Hargreaves CBE

Professor Ian Hargreaves started his journalistic career on local newspapers in Yorkshire and spent 15 years on the Financial Times before becoming Deputy Editor in the early 1990s. He was Director of BBC News and Current Affairs in the late 1980s, Editor of the Independent in the mid-1990s and Editor of the New Statesman in the late 1990s, before taking up the position of Director of the Centre for Journalism at Cardiff University. In 2010 he took up a new chair in Digital Economy at Cardiff University.

Grenville Jones

A choir leader and musician who lives in Bath. His driving passion is to get people of all ages singing, to enable them to make friends, enjoy themselves and have fun through music. He has appeared on TV and radio across the world through his leadership of Bath Male Choir, the Golden-Oldies charity, which he founded in 2008, and his many other musical projects and concerts.

Professor Miller Puckette

The author of 'Max' and 'Pure Data', two seminal and widely-used software environments for live computer music. After studying mathematics at MIT and Harvard University and conducting research at IRCAM in Paris, he joined the music department at the University of California where he is now professor and chair of the department. He has also written extensively on techniques for analysing and synthesizing sound with a computer, and on real-time human/computer interactions in musical performance.

Ken Loach

Film director Ken Loach was honoured in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the film industry. Loach has won multiple awards for his work including the Palme D’Or in 2006 for his film ‘The Wind That Shakes The Barley’. He is also well-known for his films ‘Kes’ and ‘Looking for Eric’. His film ‘The Angels’ Share’, which won the Jury Prize at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, was screened at Bath Spa University to raise funds for Community Arts Therapies. Loach, who is Patron of the Community Arts Therapies, was in attendance and answered questions from the audience.

Joanna MacGregor OBE

Joanna MacGregor is regarded as one of the world’s most wide-ranging and innovative musicians, and was appointed Artistic Director of the Bath International Music Festival in 2006.  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.

Tom McGaw LOV

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 includ 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.

Tristram Shapeero

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.

Sir William Stubbs

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.

Professor Sir Graeme Davies

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.

Professor David Timms

Professor Timms hjas 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.

Simon Ralph CBE

Simon Relph is 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 he is now Chairman of the David Lean Bafta Foundation. He has 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 is the author of The Relph Report on low budget film production. Simon is a non executive director of Arts Alliance Media and The Brixton Ritzy Cinema and the Exeter Picturehouse.

Mr Anthony Dewberry

To follow

Asha Sarabhai

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.

Dr Paul Phillips OBE

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 Gomes de Costa

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.