One of the UK’s best loved film stars and a key supporter of the Dementia Services Development Centre, Dame Judi Dench will collect an honorary degree from the University of Stirling this summer. The award of Doctor of the University will be conferred in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the Arts, particularly to film.
Judi Dench began her career on stage and established herself as one of the most significant theatre performers in Britain playing some of Shakespeare’s iconic heroines. She moved into television in A Fine Romance and As Time Goes By, and her film roles include Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown, Shakespeare in Love, Chocolat, Mrs Henderson Presents and Notes on a Scandal. In 1995, she was cast as the first female ‘M’ in the James Bond films and starred in the latest Bond film Skyfall in 2012. Her many awards include eleven BAFTAs, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award (Oscar).
In addition to Judi Dench’s stellar career on stage and screen, the University recognises the important role the star has played in highlighting dementia.
Professor June Andrews, Director of the Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC) in the University’s School of Applied Social Science said: “Dame Judi officially opened our Iris Murdoch Building a decade ago, giving a terrific boost to the world-wide work of the Dementia Services Development Centre which has now been at the University of Stirling for about a quarter of a century. Her moving Bafta-winning performance depicting a woman with dementia in the classic film Iris is still one of our best resources in helping everyone understand the value of every person with this condition, and the evidence base for supporting them.”
The award of Doctor of the University will also be conferred on Sheikh Dr Ahmed Abdullah Al Ghazali, founder of the Association of Private Arab Universities based in Jordan and Chairman of the Arab Network for Open Learning. He will receive the honour in recognition of his outstanding contribution to education in Oman.
A visionary and a leader in education, the Dr Al Ghazali has effectively contributed to establishing and shaping the renaissance of modern Omani. Early in his career he established the first school for girls on Oman’s islands and the first educational supervision offices in the cities of Sohar and Sur. His success in these initiatives led to his appointment to a series of government posts including Minister of Education, during which time he wrote the Philosophy of Education for the Sultanate of Oman, created regulations for governing schools and established a teacher training institute. In 1996 he founded Muscat College and set about creating one of the most highly regarded colleges in the region. Their partnership with the University of Stirling to provide degree programmes for Omani students has been running successfully since 2003.
Mr Iain Macdonald will receive the award of Doctor of the University in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the international co-operative movement.
Born in Edinburgh, Mr Macdonald gained an MA in History and Race Relations from the University of Edinburgh and worked in the Ministry of Public Building and Works and the Inner London Education Authority. There, he became a Trade Union, Labour and co-operative activist and on his return to Scotland he joined the Co-operative Union as its Scottish Education Officer. He was also elected as a Strathclyde Regional Councillor and represented Dumbarton for 14 years. He moved to the Co-operative Group in Manchester in 1996 and after posts including Head of Co-operative Strategy, Iain Macdonald was appointed Director-General of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) in Geneva in 2002. Founded in 1895, the ICA is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in the world and currently has 290 member organisations from 100 countries. Their Global300 project shows that the top 300 co-operative businesses alone have a combined turnover equal to the tenth largest world economy. Co-operatives also provide 100 million jobs worldwide.
As Director-General, Iain Macdonald raised the profile of the co-operative business model, working to resolve some of the world’s economic and social problems. He represented the ICA as an observer to the UN Economic and Social Council and sat on Freedom from Hunger’s Ambassadors Council. Since leaving the ICA in 2010, Iain Macdonald has worked as a co-operative consultant, a board member of Co-operative Development Scotland and the New Lanark Trust.
Professor James Smith will receive theaward of Doctor of the University in recognition of his outstanding contribution to our understanding of economic and health issues associated with ageing.
Professor Smith is one of the world’s leading scholars in the area of ageing and a key contributor to the establishment of a worldwide network of longitudinal surveys of ageing, bringing together economics with other disciplines to help understand the challenges facing an ageing world population. For over twenty years Professor Smith has led the RAND Labor and Population division, one of the main centres of ageing research globally, and he has twice received the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Merit Award, the most distinguished honour NIH grants to a researcher. He is one of the most cited health and labour economists globally and has been a leading figure in developing major ageing studies such as the English Longitudinal Survey of Ageing.
Professor Smith is currently working on a major project with David Bell, Professor of Economics at the Stirling Management School to establish a longitudinal ageing study. He is a Fellow of the Society of Labor Economists and received the Ulysses Medal from University College Dublin. In 2011, Professor Smith was elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies of Science.
Lesley Wilkinson
Communications Manager
University of Stirling
pr@stir.ac.uk
01786 466203
Graduation ceremonies
Graduation ceremonies will be held in the Gannochy National Tennis Centre on campus at 10am and 2.30pm (Wednesday 26 June) and 10am and 2.30pm (Thursday 27 June). The Chancellor of the University, Dr James Naughtie will preside.
Honorary degrees will be conferred as follows:
Wednesday 26 June 2013
- 10am - Sheikh Dr Ahmed Abdullah Al Ghazali will receive the award of Doctor of the University in recognition of his outstanding contribution to education in Oman, and to his successful career both as an educator and as a leader in education.
- 2.30pm - Dame Judi Dench will receive the award of Doctor of the University in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the Arts in general and to film in particular.
Thursday 27 June 2013
- 10am - Mr Iain Macdonald will receive the award of Doctor of the University in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the international co-operative movement as Director-General of the International Co-operative Alliance.
- 2.30pm - Professor James Smith will receive the award of Doctor of the University in recognition of his outstanding contribution to our understanding of economic and health issues associated with ageing.