The Society is in its formative stages. Here is what Fellowship costs, what Universities pay, and what we commit to.
Our commitments to Founding Fellows
Free for life for the first fifty Founding Fellows.
The first fifty Fellows of the Society never pay for Fellowship. The place lasts for as long as you remain a member. No card details are taken at application.
An annual fee after the founding places.
Fellows who join after the fifty founding places are taken pay an annual Fellowship fee. The fee will be published before anyone is asked to pay, and every Fellow will be told directly. No one is charged automatically.
A first year covered by your University.
When your University establishes a chapter, it covers your first year of Fellowship.
Founding Fellow status is permanent.
A Founding Fellow keeps the designation for as long as they remain a member.
How the Society is funded
Universities fund their chapters. Fellows fund their Fellowship.
A University that establishes a chapter pays a one-off set-up fee and an annual fee, set out in the participation agreement we issue on enquiry. The set-up fee includes a first year of Fellowship for every honorary doctor the University has already awarded.
Beyond the founding fifty and any year a University covers, Fellows pay an annual fee in their own name.
We are recording, against every membership, the exact terms offered at the point of application. Whatever we do later, we will know what you were told.
Giving back
Distinction should lead somewhere beyond the individual.
As the Society grows, a share of its income will fund work in education, research and civic good, distributed on merit in fewer and larger awards, so each one is large enough to matter.
The figure will be established once the Society has generated revenue and reserves. The intent is fixed, and the Fellows who join now will shape what it becomes.
That is what "with distinction, comes purpose" is meant to mean in practice.