UCL honours alumni and friends alongside Class of 2026 at Royal Festival Hall

This year's first graduation ceremonies drew academics, graduands and families to London's South Bank, as the Class of 2026 marked the formal awarding of their degrees at Royal Festival Hall.

Sharing the stage with them were three honorary award recipients whose achievements across medicine, infrastructure and culture have each left a mark far beyond their own fields.

Honorary degrees

A Doctorate of Science (Medicine) was posthumously conferred upon Carol Jennings, a dedicated campaigner and passionate global advocate for research into dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Carol’s remarkable contribution to Alzheimer’s disease research began in the 1980s, when she wrote to a research team led by Professor Sir John Hardy (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) with a hand-drawn family tree tracing a devastating pattern of early-onset diagnoses across her family.

That contact led directly to the identification of the ‘London Mutation’, a gene mutation that provided evidence for the amyloid cascade hypothesis, now integral to our understanding of the causes of Alzheimer’s disease, and to the recent development of the first therapies proven to slow the rate of cognitive decline in people with the condition.

Carol later left her teaching career to dedicate herself to advocacy, serving as the Alzheimer’s Society’s first Coordinator for Younger People with Dementia and becoming Honorary Vice-President of the Society alongside her husband Stuart. She passed away in March 2024, aged 70. The BBC documentary The Jennings v Alzheimer’s, broadcast shortly after her death, won the Grierson Award for Best Science Documentary.

A Doctorate of Literature was also awarded to Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries in London.

Justine played a pivotal role in delivering the Cultural Olympiad as part of the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games: the largest cultural festival associated with the event, featuring some 5,000 events across every London borough. She subsequently led the development of East Bank on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, and has been a key partner in the creation of the UCL East campus in Stratford. She is also the founder of the World Cities Culture Forum, a global network spanning 50 cities across six continents, which was based at UCL East for 12 months in 2024.

Her role in modern London is widely acknowledged and respected, and Justine was awarded an OBE by Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2015.

Honorary fellowships

An Honorary Fellowship was awarded to Christopher Brewer MBE, Director of C Brewer & Sons, and founder of the C P Charitable Trust.

Through the Trust’s scholarships programme, more than 80 African graduate students have been supported in undertaking the MSc in Global Health and Development at UCL’s Institute for Global Health. Last year, the Trust renewed its commitment to this programme for a further three years. Christopher was awarded an MBE in the 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for charitable services to young people.

A special community

“Honorary Awards are a unique opportunity for us to celebrate those whose achievements and contributions have made UCL and the wider world a better place,” said Angharad Milenkovic, Vice-President (Advancement) at UCL. “Each recipient embodies something we believe deeply at UCL: that the combination of talent, determination and a commitment to others is where change begins.

“Inspired by our Honorary Award recipients, we hope that the Class of 2026 carry those same values with them as they take their next steps.”