News and Events

'The Police' legend is made Doctor of Arts

13 November 2008

Honorary BU Doctorates Andy Summers and Mark Austin

Legendary rock and jazz guitarist Andy Summers has received an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree from BU.

The multi-Grammy and Brit-Award winner joined television news anchor, Mark Austin, and eminent academic, Professor Sir Brian Follett, in receiving Honorary Doctorates during BU’s annual Award Ceremonies on Friday 7 November.

Summers spent his formative years in Bournemouth and cut his musical teeth in the town during the 1950s and 1960s. During the 1970s and 1980s, he rose to international stardom as a member of The Police, one of the world’s most successful rock bands of all time.

“It's very special for me to come back to the place where I started and to receive this award,” said Summers, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “It's a tremendous confirmation of all the things I've strived for all my life.

“I'm lucky to have started out in this town in England because I found it to be a nurturing environment,” he continued. “Of course there was no university then – I had to sort of make my own university in my head – which I then took to London and on into the world.”

Mark Austin grew up in Bournemouth and started his journalistic career with the local newspaper, the Bournemouth Echo. He later worked for the BBC and joined ITN in the mid 1980s, covering many of the major world stories of the past two decades including both Gulf Wars, the September 11 attacks, the Rwandan genocide and Hurricane Katrina. He now anchors the ‘ITV Evening News’.

Joking that he needed an autocue, Austin thanked the University and the town for “a great privilege and a great honour”.

Just days prior to the ceremony, Austin was in Washington, DC to front ITV’s coverage of the US Presidential election which inspired him to encourage graduates that anything is possible during their future careers.

“This was a very special week, a very momentous week,” he enthused, “and I suppose that as a graduate, perhaps Barack Obama is the image you should follow. What he has done is quite extraordinary – the triumph of hope and optimism, the story of the possible.”