Two leaders of the cultural life of Orkney have been awarded honorary degrees at a special Heriot-Watt graduation ceremony held at St Magnus Cathedral. The ceremony was being held specifically to honour these two distinguished Orkney citizens and followed the first such ceremony, held in 2007, when Heriot-Watt awarded an honorary degree to Elaine Bullard MBE
Glenys Hughes, long term director of Orkney's St Magnus Festival and founder of the Orkney Conducting and the Orkney Composing Courses, was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters for services to the educational, cultural and economic life of Orkney and in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the development and promotion of the arts on Orkney, in the wider United Kingdom and internationally.
Howie Firth, Director of the Orkney Science Festival, was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science, in recognition of his services to the educational, cultural and economic life of Scotland, and in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the promotion of public engagement with, and greater understanding of, science, nationally and internationally.