Ben Cohen and Carol Klein to receive Honorary awards

Former England rugby union international and Northampton Saints player Ben Cohen MBE and British gardening expert and presenter of BBC’s popular Gardeners’ World Carol Klein will receive Honorary awards from The University of Northampton’s Winter Graduation Ceremonies on Sunday 12 February 2012 at Royal & Derngate, Northampton.

Ben will receive his Honorary Masters of Science at the 10.45am ceremony (Northampton Business School and the School of Social Sciences) for his contribution to rugby union, and equality and diversity. Ben has also recently donated his time to coach the student rugby teams at The University of Northampton. He has now retired from professional rugby to head the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation, which has been set up to help combat bullying. Ben commented:

“I was born in Northampton and have lived here ever since so it is a great honour to be recognised by the University in this way.  Receiving this is an unexpected pleasure and it is definitely something I would never have thought possible when I was younger.”

Carol will receive her Honorary Fellowship at the 2.30pm ceremony for the School of Education in recognition of her work in promoting environmentally responsible horticulture. In 2009, The University of Northampton’s Dr Jeff Ollerton (Reader in Biodiversity, School of Science and Technology) appeared on the Gardeners’ World ‘Science in the Garden’ special with Carol, discussing his work on flower biology and pollinator conservation.

1816 students will be graduating from The University of Northampton over three ceremonies, including a mother and daughter – both from the School of Education – and two brothers, both graduating from MSc IT Service Management, Northampton Business School.

For the first time, students will also be graduating from the following courses:

• MA International Marketing Strategy; MSc International Banking & Finance; Postgraduate Certificate in Income Generation, Bidding and Tendering; Certificate in Business Mentoring & Coaching – Northampton Business School
• Postgraduate Certificate in Education (Secondary) – School of Education
• FdSc Dental Nursing – School of Health
• BSc Non-Destructive Testing; FdSc Agriculture – School of Science and Technology

Eight members of academic staff from The University of Northampton will be receiving the annual University Teaching Fellowships. These awards celebrate excellence in teaching and student learning and are worth £1,500 each to go towards continuing professional development. The recipients of the 2011/12 Fellowships are:

• Angie Bartoli, Senior Lecturer in Social Work,  Sue Kennedy, Leader for Social Work, and Prospera Tedam, Senior Lecturer for Social Work – Practice – School of Health – group award
• Ruth Copeland-Phillips, Senior Lecturer in Wastes Management, Paul Cox, Senior Lecturer in Wastes Management, and Louise Maxwell, Senior Lecturer in Wastes Management – School of Science and Technology – group award
• Derek Attenburrow, Senior Lecturer in Arts – Design – School of The Arts
• Dr Drew Gray, Senior Lecturer in History of Crime – School of Social Sciences

Continuing the success of the graduation ceremonies being available to view online, The University of Northampton will be web streaming the Winter Graduation Ceremonies live in collaboration with StreamExchange. The ceremonies can be viewed online at www.northampton.ac.uk/graduationlive.