The UWI Regional Headquarters, Jamaica, W.I. Monday, November 24, 2025 - The University of London conferred the degree of Honorary Doctor of Social Sciences on Professor Sir Hilary Beckles on Wednesday, 19 November 2025. The ceremony of conferment was a special event held on Foundation Day to mark the 189th anniversary of the university. It took place at Senate House, the administrative centre of the university, under the patronage of the Chancellor, Her Royal Highness, Princess Anne.
In presenting Sir Hilary to Her Royal Highness, orator Professor Kingsley Abbott commended him for decades of distinguished scholarship as an historian, expert leadership in the field of higher education, and path breaking and visionary advocacy in social justice on the world stage. He informed the gathering that Sir Hilary was a child of the ‘Windrush’ migration from the West Indies to the UK, who rose through the high school system mastered the higher education research system, receiving a PhD in Economic History from Hull University at the tender age of 24 years.
From there he has soared to become Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies where he became its youngest professor at the age of 35. He now serves also as the Chancellor of the United Nations University, and Distinguished Chancellor’s Visiting Professor at Cornell University.
In response, Sir Hilary remarked that the honour was a tribute to the University of the West Indies that had begun its journey in 1948 as a College of the University of London which it continues to see as its ancestral home. Sir Hilary further remarked: “At a personal level, the honour is most gratifying because I was here at this distinguished university 39 years ago as a Senior Research Fellow where I had the opportunity to research, write, and publish my first major academic monograph.”
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