University of Surrey Awards Honorary Doctorate to Jonny Wilkinson

GUILDFORD, England - The University of Surrey is proud to confer the honorary degree of Doctor of the University to Jonny Wilkinson for services to the sports industry. The award was made on Friday, 03 April at Guildford Cathedral.

Jonathan Peter ‘Jonny’ Wilkinson OBE is an English rugby union player and member of the England national team. From 2001-2003, before and during the 2003 Rugby World Cup, Jonny rose to fame and was acknowledged as one of the world’s best rugby players. He was an integral member of the 2003 Rugby World Cup winning England squad, scoring the winning drop goal in the last minute of extra time against Australia. He plays his club rugby in the Guinness Premiership for Newcastle Falcons. Jonny has also toured twice with the British and Irish Lions, in 2001 and 2005, scoring 67 Test points in the 6 Lions test matches he has started. Jonny began playing rugby at the age of 4. He was inspired to play rugby having spent most of his early weekends watching his father play.

Jonny comments: “It’s a real privilege for me and I do feel very honoured to have received an honorary degree from the University of Surrey. I missed out going to university, initially I had a place set for me but rugby took over. I’d always wished it was something I could do at that age.”

Notes to Editors

The University of Surrey is one of the UK’s leading professional, scientific and technological universities with a world class research profile and a reputation for excellence in teaching and research. Ground-breaking research at the University is bringing direct benefit to all spheres of life - helping industry to maintain its competitive edge and creating improvements in the areas of health, medicine, space science, the environment, communications, defence and social policy. Programmes in science and technology have gained widespread recognition and it also boasts flourishing programmes in dance and music, social sciences, management and languages and law. In addition to the campus on 150 hectares just outside Guildford, Surrey, the University also owns and runs the Surrey Research Park, which provides facilities for 140 companies employing 2,700 staff.

The Sunday Times names Surrey as ‘The University for Jobs’ which underlines the university’s growing reputation for providing high quality, relevant degrees.

Media enquiries: Peter La, Press Office at the University of Surrey, Tel: +44(0)1483-689191 or E-mail: p.la@surrey.ac.uk

Source: University of Surrey

Media enquiries: Peter La, Press Office at the University of Surrey, Tel: +44(0)1483-689191 or E-mail: p.la at surrey.ac.uk