Queen’s Birthday Honours: damehood for outgoing Oxford v-c

The outgoing vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford and the former president of UCL are among the higher education sector leaders recognised in the Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours.

Louise Richardson, who will leave Oxford at the close of the year at the end of her seven-year term, is appointed a dame. Michael Arthur, who stepped down from UCL in January 2021, is knighted.

There is also a damehood for Sally Mapstone, principal of the University of St Andrews, and a CBE for David Sweeney, who will step down as executive chair of funding council Research England later this year.

Meanwhile, Dame Marina Warner, professor of English and creative writing at Birkbeck, University of London, is appointed a companion of honour – of which there are only 65 at any one time.

Among other sector leaders, there is a CBE for Paul Layzell, who will retire later this year after 12 years as principal of Royal Holloway, University of London, and an OBE for Trevor McMillan, vice-chancellor of Keele University. Chris Skidmore, the former universities minister, also gets an OBE.

Leading researchers are also honoured. There are knighthoods for Peter Bruce, professor of materials at Oxford; David MacMillan, the Nobel prizewinning professor of chemistry at Princeton University; and Aziz Sheikh, chair of primary care research and development at Oxford.

Damehoods go to Linda Colley, professor of history at Princeton; Clare Grey, Geoffrey Moorhouse-Gibson and Royal Society professor of chemistry at the University of Cambridge; and Fiona Powrie, director of Oxford’s Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology.

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com