University of Suffolk Unveils its Honorary Graduates

Ipswich Town’s back-to-back promotions will be celebrated when manager Kieran McKenna is honoured by the University of Suffolk next month.

He is one of five people being awarded honorary degrees at graduation ceremonies in October at the University’s Ipswich campus.

Honorary degrees will also be awarded to Boshor Ali, Chair of BSC Multicultural Services; historian Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch; Michael Read MBE, who has completed 33 Channel swims, and Chair of Healthwatch England and of the Royal College of Physicians, Professor David Croisdale-Appleby OBE.

Kieran McKenna has led Town to back-to-back promotions from League One to the Premier League, bringing top-flight football to Suffolk for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century. 

Appointed manager of Ipswich Town in December 2021, he has overseen historic success at Portman Road.

Having won promotion from League One in his first full season as manager, the Blues were promoted to the Premier League in May 2024, becoming just the fifth side to win back-to- back promotions from the third tier to the Premier League, following a hugely impressive 2023/24 campaign.

Kieran's Town sides have been the league's top scorers in each of their two promotion seasons, highlighting the progressive and attacking football which has seen Portman Road packed for every home game and has earned plaudits throughout the game.

Kieran said: “To receive an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Suffolk is a proud moment for both me and my family.

“Suffolk has become a special place for us since we moved here nearly three years ago and to now receive a gesture like this from an institution so central to life in the county is an incredible honour.

“We are proud of everything we have been able to achieve at the football club over the last few years and underpinning our successes has been a strong culture, built on the hard work of so many people and continued learning.

“To have been able to bring joy to so many people in Ipswich and Suffolk over the course of the last two seasons has been extremely rewarding, with the celebrations following both of our promotions showing the strong sense of community surrounding the club, which we are proud to be a part of.”

Also being honoured are:

Boshor Ali, a founder member, and subsequently Chair of BSC Multicultural Services, previously known as Bangladeshi Support Centre, Boshor has spent more than 25 years working tirelessly to inspire the staff and trustees in delivering the vision and values required for community service.

Born in 1971 in Sylhet, Bangladesh, he completed his secondary education in Ipswich and established strong connections in the Bangladeshi community.

Inequality as the result of poverty and exclusion, and especially health inequalities have been central to Boshor’s dedication as an advocate on others’ behalf, enabling the provision of funding to support the remit of meeting individual needs and bringing communities together.

Boshor has a clear vision of the Bangladeshi community as an integral part of Suffolk life and over the years, this has meant that the organisation he helped to set up has become responsive to wider and differing needs and is now a source of support across Suffolk to anyone, regardless of faith or ethnic origin.

As a result, the organisation has won a multitude of awards for providing an outstanding service to people of diverse backgrounds throughout Suffolk.

“I am honoured to be receiving this award and deeply grateful to my colleagues at BSCMS, because it is their hard work and devotion that continues to enable our organisation to maintain its vision.

“I am passionate concerning the removal of inequality as the result of poverty and exclusion, especially in health issues and through education.

“My strongest wish is that this award will strengthen my ability to promote partnership for the continuation of the vital role played by BSC Multicultural Services throughout Suffolk,” he said.

Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch was brought up in Wetherden where his father was rector, and vicar at Haughley. 

He spent 1969 to 1978 at Churchill College, Cambridge, with 1972 to 1973 at the University of Liverpool, and for his doctorate he studied under the great Tudor historian Sir Geoffrey Elton. 

He was President of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology from 2011 to 2019 and remains on the Council of the Suffolk Records Society. 

He is now Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford, Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford and Senior Research Fellow of Campion Hall, Oxford. 

A prize-winning author, he has written extensively on the 16^th Century and beyond and his works include History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (Allen Lane), and the BBC TV series based on it, which appeared in 2009.

His three-part TV series for BBC2, How God Made The English, aired in March 2012 and his Silence: A Christian History appeared in 2013 with his collected essays on the Reformation which were published as All Things New: Writings on the Reformation in 2016. 

Thomas Cromwell: A Life was published in 2018 and Lower Than The Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity in 2024.

He was knighted in the UK New Year’s Honours List of 2012, and in 2019 was awarded the Leopold Lucas Prize of the University of Tübingen, previous recipients having included the President of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Dalai Lama. 

He said: “I’m delighted and feel honoured by this award by the University of Suffolk, that has in a short span already contributed so much to the life of this county that was my childhood home; not least in promoting the study of history both local and worldwide.”

Michael Read MBE represented Great Britain in swimming at the 1960 Rome Olympics and has completed 33 Channel Swims, as well as being named Amateur Sports Personality of Ipswich in 1978 and 1979.

For the last 50 years in the county town, he has been committed to supporting the local area, and following his two passions of nutrition and swimming.

Michael arrived in Ipswich in 1974 as chief nutritionist for Pauls and Whites Animal Foods and in 1984 he moved back into pharmaceutical research at SmithKline Animal Health/Pfizer Animal Health where he conducted studies all over Europe and lectured across the world.

From 1986-91 he was Vice Chairman of the National Office of Animal Health, Feed additive working group and Chairman from 1991-1994.

He was President of Sudbury Swimming Club in 1988 and has devoted the last 22 years to the restoration of Ipswich’s Broomhill Lido, a pool where he trained for 27 years.

Thanks to Heritage Lottery funding and support from Ipswich Borough Council, the lido is scheduled to reopen in 2026.

“One of my greatest regrets in life was having to settle for a master’s degree rather than staying on at university for an extra year for a Ph.D.

“This wonderful award goes to show that if you live long enough, everything is possible,” he said.

Professor David Croisdale-Appleby OBE started his career in the private sector, rising to CEO leading multinational companies in the advertising, marketing and communications sectors, in the UK, southern Africa and the USA, before founding his own network of companies.

For the past 25 years he has devoted his time to his passion for social justice, focused on improving the lives of disadvantaged, vulnerable and disabled people across the world.

He has chaired some 20 organisations in fields as diverse as forensic science, health policy and practice, law, social care, social work, professional and institutional regulation, and business school and medical education, and has held and holds some 14 ministerial appointments in the UK and internationally.

Amongst his current roles he chairs the Royal College of Physicians, DementiaUK, Healthwatch England and the Durham University Business School.

Professor Croisdale-Appleby is an Expert Adviser to the Centre for National Guidelines at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), where he has chaired many committees for the development of National Guidelines across the three domains of clinical, public health and social care. He chaired the first National Guideline Committees to extend NICE’s remit into firstly, the field of Social Care and Social Work, and secondly, into the field of Education.

In addition to his many distinguished fellowships and honorary fellowships, amongst his recent national and international awards are: Winner of The National Charity Governance Award; Winner of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising Insight in Fundraising Award; and Winner of the Sunday Times Non-Executive Director of the Year Award.

“I am honoured to be receiving this award and proud of my association with such an innovative and imaginative university, whose reputation in both the academic world and the world of business grows from strength to strength.

“It has become a major driver of economic growth in Suffolk and the whole of East Anglia. But it is even more than that – its contribution to the cultural life of the region has been immense.

“The impact of its multi-faceted research is delivered through the highly socially relevant Research Institutes such as Digital Futures, Health and Wellbeing, Social Justice and Crime, and the Suffolk Sustainability Institute, and has led to the University’s reputation for research excellence, he said.

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Suffolk, Professor Jenny Higham, said this year’s awards celebrate a wide range of distinguished achievements.

“We are very much looking forward to welcoming those we are honouring, and we celebrate alongside our graduating students.  We are proud to mark their many individual achievements and what they mean to the county of Suffolk.”

Previous Honorary Graduates at the University of Suffolk have included Ed Sheeran, Jo Brand, Nik Kershaw and Mark Murphy MBE.  

The University’s Graduation Ceremonies take place on the Ipswich Waterfront from Saturday 19 to Wednesday 23 October.

For more information, please visit www.uos.ac.uk  

Photo of Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch by Barry Jones.