Winter graduation ceremonies set to bring joy to Brighton seafront

Just over 1,200 graduates will receive their degrees at the Brighton Centre on 9 and 10 February, featuring students aged 23 to 77, and representing 99 different countries.

The ceremonies will also see Honorary degrees awarded to Sussex-based Booker Prize-winning author Anna Burns, as well as Professor Rory Mortimore, one of the world's leading experts on the geology of chalk landscapes such as the South Downs.

This year's graduating students are already bringing the knowledge and passion developed at University of Brighton to bear in the wider world.

Anna Burns picking up the 2020 International DUBLIN Literary Award - picture by DublinLibrarian

Andy Knowles

Andy Knowles joined University of Brighton as a 49-year-old mature student, swapping running his own successful engineering business to do postgraduate study for Applied Sport Physiology MSc and change his career to be involved in endurance sport. Though his degree involved a steep and often difficult learning curve, Andy is graduating with a distinction - based on research into the impact of the menstrual cycle on endurance performance of women athletes.

He has now set up an endurance physiology consultancy based at Sea Lanes in Brighton called The Endurance Project to support runners, cyclists and triathletes, and is also working on plans for an innovative project to bring business owners and other entrepreneurs together to find solutions to their business problems, while having a run in Stanmer Park!

Andy said: “I had little knowledge of physiology at the start, but I thought it can't be any harder than running a business or consulting to Heathrow Airport! It had been 20 years since I had done any kind of academic study and it was a lot tougher and more challenging than I imagined, but from the word go I absolutely loved it. My brain came alive. I knew this where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do.”

You can watch the graduations live on our website.