Sue Wilkinson MBE receives honorary degree at Bedfordshire graduation

Tue 23 July, 2019

Sue Wilkinson MBE joined Bedfordshire students at their graduation ceremony at the Putteridge Bury campus to receive an honorary award.

Students from the Faculty of Education & Sport collected awards in front of excited family and friends.

Alongside the Class of 2019, Sue received an Honorary Doctor of Science in recognition of her outstanding services to physical education.

The honorary said she was “humbled” to receive her award from the University of Bedfordshire.

Sue was trained at Human Movement Studies at Bedford College of Higher Education, teaching in secondary schools and completing outreach advisory work in our local community.

Sue’s storied career includes being seconded by the British Associations of Advisors and Lecturers in Physical Education and the Youth Sport Trust to work on a national strategy for professional development, including designing the national Physical Education School Sport and Club Links programme.

“It feels very humbling” @suewilkinson13 talks about receiving her Honorary Doctor of Science @UoB_TE #BedsGrads pic.twitter.com/27RTWztWZy
— UoB Press Office (@uobnews) July 22, 2019

After overseeing several national strategies for PE and school sport, Sue was appointed the Association for Physical Education (afPE) Strategic Lead in 2011.

In 2017 Sue became CEO of afPE and subsequently received an MBE for her services to education, ensuring all young people have a high quality physical education experience in school.

Offering the following advice to the new graduates, Sue said: “You have an incredible job. You are training the professionals of the future, and you will inspire all of those people.

“I wish you a really good journey. I hope this University will be your launch pad as it was for me.”

Deputy Vice Chancellor Donald Harley addressed the University of Bedfordshire graduates: “Today is about much more than just the conferral of your degrees. Your success will never be defined solely by the piece of paper you’ll shortly be handed or by the grades that it lists.

“Today your degree acts as a testimony to your extremely hard work, your dedication, your skills and your ambition.”

Daisie Johnson Vice President Education for Beds SU joined the graduates in celebration: “My fellow Class of 2019 graduates, let’s go out there, make plenty of mistakes and change the world and I hope we all remember that it all started right here at the University of Bedfordshire.”