AS hundreds of students graduate from the University of Bradford, it is continuing its long tradition of making a number of honorary awards.

The ceremonies, which began yesterday and will continue today, are all the more special as they are the first to be held in person since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Professor Susan Proctor was among those to receive an honorary award, hers being Doctor of Health.

She has more than 35 years' experience in health care, qualifying as a nurse in 1987, and a midwife in 1990. Later, she completed a MSc in Nursing and a PhD in Health Services Research, both at the University of Bradford.

In 2013, Susan set up a consultancy business and focused mainly on leading investigations into safeguarding matters and has worked extensively with adult survivors of abuse, to learn from them and to hold organisations to account to make improvements to the safety of those they serve.

Dame Angela Strank was awarded Doctor of Science. She has had a long and distinguished career in the energy industry, working in many countries around the world. In 2018 she became a member of BP’s Executive Management Team, holding the posts of BP's Chief Scientist and Head of Downstream Technology.

In 2010, Dame Angela won the UK First Women’s Award in Science and Technology. Then in 2017, she was awarded a DBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to the oil industry and for encouraging women into STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers. In 2018, she was the first woman to receive the UK Energy Institute’s prestigious Cadman Award for outstanding services to the energy industry.

Bradford-born professional boxer Tasif Khan, current three-time super flyweight world champion, was made an Honorary Fellow.

He set up Tasif Khan Community Boxing Academy with the aim of engaging young people through sport and physical activity, working on discipline, self-confidence, life skills and ultimately showing them a way to follow their dreams and stay on the right path.

Mary Dowson, director and one of the founders of Bradford Community Broadcasting will be made an Honorary Fellow today.

She grew up in South London and moved to the city in the late 1970s to study Peace Studies at the University of Bradford.

She is driven by a belief in people, their right to actively participate in all aspects of life and finding ways of working together in Bradford to make this happen.