Your representative sets the agenda
A senior appointee of the University brings institutional challenges to the chapter. The University owns the agenda; the Society provides the structure and access to solutions.
Universities
Activate your greatest untapped resource.
Your Honorary Doctors are among the most accomplished people your institution knows. A chapter gives them a purposeful way to keep contributing, and connects your University to a global network of remarkable people.
Ways to work together
Bring a challenge. A hive mind goes to work on it.
A board of your own Honorary Doctors
Form your own chapter. Appoint a Chair, Deputy Chair and other officers drawn from the people your institution has already recognised. The University leadership sets the agenda.
Reach beyond your own network
A challenge can be widened to the global Society. Honorary Doctors anywhere in the world can offer insight, a connection, their time, resources and ultimately a solution.
The opportunity
You have already chosen them. A chapter is how you engage them to achieve greater things.
Your Honorary Doctors were selected with care, and they were honoured because their achievement reflects what your institution stands for. Many would support more if there were an easy and purposeful way to engage.
Without a clear channel to contribute through, engagement can naturally fade over time, and a great deal of goodwill goes quietly unused. We have found this is common in many Universities across the world. It is a question of structure, and structure is solvable.
A local chapter of the Society supplies that structure: a board drawn from your own Honorary Doctors, regular engagement and direction setting with your leadership, and a digital platform where challenges are raised, worked and closed with the outcome recorded. Behind it sits a global Society of Honorary Doctors, so when a challenge needs to reach beyond your own Honorary Doctors, it reaches Fellows across the whole Society to support and solve.
The Society Fund
Your chapter will be able to apply to the Society Fund for projects at the University and in its community, including student initiatives. The Fund will seek match funding for every award. Its criteria and process will be published when it opens.
What a chapter does
Your local chapter is a grouping of your own Honorary Doctors, with the whole global Fellowship behind it.
Challenges, worked and closed
Each challenge is captured, worked on, and closed with a recorded outcome. You can see at any point what the chapter has delivered.
Invite your Honorary Doctors directly
Send an invitation from the platform. They accept, their award is confirmed, and they appear in your chapter.
Masterclasses, lectures and an annual gathering
Engage with your local chapter and the Society to organise contributions that inspire and enrich teaching, staff development and institutional life.
Challenges
Value from those you have honoured
Universities hold extraordinary potential within their honorary communities, yet much of it remains untapped. With the right framework, this potential can be directed towards advancing institutional goals, creating lasting value and societal impact.
Every University will have its strategic goals and its challenges to overcome. Collectively your honorary doctorate network can act as a powerful component to deliver progress and solutions.
Define your goals and the challenges that stand in your way. You decide who sees them. You decide what happens to the suggestions, solutions and answers.
A challenge can stay inside your own chapter, or you can tap into a global ‘hive mind’ reaching the whole Society. Choose to publish anonymously or select to publish your institution's name alongside it.
| Setting | Who sees it | On the public website |
|---|---|---|
| Chapter only | Your chapter, with your institution named | No |
| Network anonymised | Every Society member. Your institution and country are removed | No |
| Network public | Every Society member, with your institution named | Only if you switch that on as well |
Fellows respond in their own words. Responses come back to the chapter that asked, and a Fellow can amend or withdraw their own response at any time.
The ‘Challenges’ feature opens as chapters are established.
Getting started
Four steps, and the administrative load is light by design.
01
Secure senior leadership endorsement to establish your chapter
02
Appoint a representative to coordinate setup and activity
03
Announce involvement and invite your existing Honorary Doctors
04
Form the chapter board and bring your first challenge
Where we are today
If you are interested, the conversation is worth having early.
The Society is being established. We are onboarding and verifying Honorary Doctors now, and building the first chapters with institutions who want a hand in shaping the model.
We are offering a limited number of pilot places, free of charge, to founding Universities who are keen to support this initiative and help shape the model.
Frequent questions
For Universities
Which Universities can take part?
Any University that awards honorary doctorates, anywhere in the world.
What does it cost?
A one-off set-up fee and an annual fee, set out in the participation agreement we issue when you get in touch. The set-up fee includes membership of the Society, onboarding to the management platform and a complimentary first year of Fellowship for every historical Honorary Doctor you have already awarded. The annual fee includes membership of the Society, access to the management platform and a complimentary first year of Fellowship for every Honorary Doctor you award in that year.
Do we hand over our Honorary Doctors' details?
No lists change hands. Your representative invites Honorary Doctors individually from the platform, and each one decides whether to join.
What does it ask of our staff?
A University representative sets up the chapter, invites your Honorary Doctors and brings challenges to the board. The Society handles verification, onboarding and the platform.
What does the University get?
The ultimate thing it gains is the activation of its greatest untapped resource: a standing board of its own Honorary Doctors, a platform where challenges are raised, worked and closed with the outcome recorded, and access to the global Fellowship when a challenge requires it.
Explore a chapter for your University.
If you are interested in activating your greatest untapped resource, solving your challenges and delivering your strategic plan, establish a local chapter of the Society today. Get in touch.