Two women were awarded honorary degrees by The Open University in Wales at a graduation ceremony that featured more than 400 students plus their families and friends.
The honorary degrees of Doctor of the University were awarded to former Wales Education Minister Kirsty Williams and former National Poet Gillian Clarke at the International Convention Centre (ICC) Wales in Newport.
Kirsty Williams CBE served as the Senedd Member for Brecon and Radnorshire for 22 years. She was the first women to lead one of the four main political parties in Wales.
From 2016 to 2021 she was Minister for Education, leading a national mission of education reform.
This included introducing the most progressive student finance system in the UK, ensuring that maintenance support was available across all modes and levels of study.
She said:
“I am thoroughly honoured to receive this award from The Open University in Wales – an institution who has provided so many opportunities to so many people in our nation.
“Throughout my time in public service the OU in Wales has had a relentless focus on ensuring that lifelong learning was accessible to all and has supported students, many from our most deprived communities, to reach their full potential.
“They are a crucial part of the higher education landscape in Wales. To be able to share in celebrations of their latest graduates is very humbling.”
Gillian Clarke is a celebrated poet, playwright and editor. She was the National Poet for Wales from 2008 to 2016 and has published several books of her own poetry and prose, as well as a translation of 7th century Welsh poem Y Gododdin.
She is also President of Tŷ Newydd, a Welsh writers centre in Gwynedd that she established alongside her husband. In 2011, she joined the Gorsedd of Bards where she was described ‘as one of the most prominent poets of these islands’.
Her poems cover diverse subjects and they often discuss women’s issues and the natural environment, including the Welsh landscape. She is often inspired by her own life in Ceredigion, where she is actively involved in conservation.
“I remember the OU being formed by Harold Wilson’s government thinking what a wonderful, new, creative opportunity it was,” said Gillian.
“At home with my small children, my magic time in Cardiff University, straight out of school in the 1950s, behind me, I knew how rich those three years had been, and rejoiced to imagine all the women and men who could now regain what they had lost.”
