Graduation Ceremony Images 1986-2012

A collection of official graduation ceremony images featuring Open University Honorary Graduates donated by Peter Barnes.

Dame Judi Dench with Peter Barnes and Kenneth Berrill on the occasion of her receipt of an honorary doctorate of the Open University.
Image : Judi Dench, Kenneth Berrill, Peter Barnes
Date: 1992
A group photograph including John Daniel (Vice-Chancellor), Betty Boothroyd (Chancellor), Peter Barnes (Honorary Graduate Presenter) and honorary graduate, broadcaster Jon Snow on the occasion of his conferment at Portsmouth on 7 April 2001.
Image : OU staff and honorary graduate Jon Snow
Date: 2001

A collection of more than 50 graduation ceremony images has been added to the Digital Archive. Many of the officially shot images feature Open University Honorary Graduates from the fields of literature and the arts, science, education and broadcasting among others. There are images of notables including actress Dame Judi Dench, artist Quentin Blake, broadcasters Kirsty Wark and Jon Snow, and author Bill Bryson to name but a few. The original images were kindly loaned to the Archive to be scanned, by former Director for the Centre for Childhood (FELS) and Honorary Graduate Presenter Peter Barnes, who appears in many of the photographs. 

The images can be browsed within the larger Historical OU Images collection or viewed as a separate collection.

Visit the Ceremonies Collection to view recordings of OU ceremonies from recent years.