Postgraduate students’ virtual graduation celebrated with families and staff

Almost six thousand postgraduates who studied at Imperial in 2019-2020 have been invited to join online graduation celebrations between 17 and 20 May.

Each department will hold their own virtual event stream where the hard work and academic achievements of Imperial students will be celebrated. Every graduate will be individually recognised.  

A celebration website includes congratulations messages and videos from College leadership, academic staff from each faculty, alumni and honorary degree recipients. Students are encouraged to join the conversation on social media using #OurImperial. Students, staff and family members will also be able to chat with each other in the live chat room which will be open during each celebration event.  

Future graduation ceremony 

The College has committed that, once the Covid pandemic allows, all graduates will be invited to an in-person ceremony. The details of when and where this will take place will be confirmed in the future.   

Honorary degrees 

In addition to celebrating last year’s postgraduate students, several honorary degree recipients will be recognised. These include Imperial alumni Jonathan Flint who is now the President of the Institute of Physics (BSc Physics 1982) and Sir Sam Jonah, Executive Chairman of Jonah Capital (MSc Mineral Resources Engineering 1979).

Sir Sam will address the celebrating students and their families, applauding their hard work and determination during a very challenging year and providing some advice for their future careers.  Sir Sam was also the inaugural speaker in the new Great Minds event series earlier this month. In conversation with President Gast, Sir Sam shared experiences from his varied career, memories from Imperial and his ideas on education, team building and leadership in the UK, Ghana and rest of the world. You can watch the event here.  

Also awarded honorary degrees are:  

• Ross Brawn OBE, Managing Director of Motor Sports, Formula 1.
• Baroness Brown of Cambridge, DBE FREng FRS, Julia King a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords.
• William Butler-Adams OBE CEng, CEO of Brompton Bicycle. 
• Professor Gordon Dougan FMedSci, FRS, Head of Infection Challenge area (Wellcome) and Professor (University of Cambridge).
• Professor Dame Georgina Mace DBE FRS, former Director of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Centre for Population Biology at Imperial.  Sadly, Dame Georgina passed away last year before she was able to receive her honorary degree.
• Dervilla Mitchell CBE FREng FIAE FICE FIEI Deputy Chair of Arup Group.
• Professor Howard R. Morris DSc(Hon), FRSA, FRS Emeritus Professor of Biological Chemistry and Senior Research Investigator Imperial College London.
• Professor Sir John Savill Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council.
• Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE CEO of the Royal Academy of Engineering and CEO of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation.
• Sarah Wilkinson CEO of NHS Digital. 

Find out more 

For more information about the virtual graduation events, please read the FAQs.