Honorary degrees for November 2022 announced

Medical expert Dr Sarah Jarvis will be among the recipients of honorary doctorates at this November's graduation ceremonies.

The cohort spans the worlds of medicine, music and engineering.

Sarah trained at Cambridge (1980-1983) and Oxford (1983-1986) universities and became a partner in an inner-city general practice in 1990, where she was a GP trainer for 24 years. She is an active medical writer and broadcaster and is the resident doctor for BBC Radio 2, ITV Lunchtime News and Good Housekeeping.

During the COVID19 pandemic, Sarah broadcast up to five days a week on BBC Radio 2 and Jeremy Vine on Channel 5, offering expert advice about all aspects of the pandemic. She was the resident medical expert on the prime-time ITV programme, Coronavirus: Q&A and appears regularly on BBC Breakfast, BBC News Channel, Good Morning Britain, BBC Radio 5 live and Sky News.

Sarah's books include A Younger Woman’s Diagnose-it-yourself Guide, Women’s Health for Life, Pregnancy for Dummies, Children’s Health for Dummies and The Welcome Visitor, a book on the ethics of dying co-authored with John Humphrys. She founded the Women’s Taskforce at the RCGP and was the RCGP Women’s Health spokesperson for over 15 years.

In 2017 she became clinical director of the Patient Platform Limited. This includes the website Patient.info, which provides patient health education to over 140 million people a year worldwide.

Sarah was appointed an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list in December 2017 for services to general practice and public understanding of health.

After graduating from UMIST in 1978 with a Civil Engineering degree, Nigel Fine began his career with John Laing Construction where he worked as an engineer on major construction projects in the UK and the Middle East. Nigel is a registered professional engineer (C.Eng) and has a MBA from London Business School.  He held Executive Director roles with International Paint, Andersen Consulting (Accenture) and Experian plc. In 2009 he was appointed Chief Executive of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and he retired in June 2022. Nigel’s non-Executive positions have included; Chairing the forum representing all the UK’s professional engineering institutions, Trustee of Engineering UK and Chair of the Big Bang Board. Nigel is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Institution of Civil Engineers and his societal interest is through supporting young people, from diverse backgrounds, into engineering and technology careers.

Richard Ayres was born in Cornwall in 1965. He started playing trombone in the local brass band, and was encouraged to compose by the trombonist and composer James Fulkerson. After briefly studying theatre, he went to study composition at Huddersfield Polytechnic. After graduating, he moved to The Hague for postgraduate study in composition with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatoire.

Richard still lives in the Netherlands, and in addition to his work as freelance composer he also enjoys teaching at the Amsterdam Conservatoire, and is a guest teacher at the Royal Conservatoire in Birmingham.

Paul is Head of Engineering for Air and Space Products at BAE Systems in Lancashire. He has over 30 years of international experience in Aerospace Design and Manufacture Engineering and has a distinguished engineering record, making a substantial contribution to aircraft programmes through the application of both practical and analytical engineering knowledge.

As the Head of Engineering he is responsible for leading and developing strategic solutions for the next generation of Air and Space products, leading the way in the global sector.

He came into engineering via a vocational route, starting as an apprentice and studying part-time with the University of Huddersfield, continuing through to a PhD in Aerospace Design for Manufacture, which achieved an Innovation Award. His background has made him an inspiration to many engineers from non-traditional backgrounds, by demonstrating that engineering excellence is open to all.

He is a Chartered Engineer, Global Engineering Fellow of BAE Systems and a Fellow and Trustee of the IET. He is also a Visiting Professor in the School of Computing and Engineering at the University, where he chairs the industrial advisory board and is a PhD supervisor. He also has a number of academic publications in his field.