In June 2024, we were privileged to hold special ceremonies in London and Guernsey for over 350 graduates of former teacher training colleges, and present them with honorary Bachelor of Education degrees from the University of London. 

We’re grateful to many of these individuals who helped us spread the word and connect us with their classmates, maximising the number of eligible former teachers who could be part of the celebration and rightly recognised for their work in education. 

Celebrating teachers across the decades 

The degrees were awarded because of the gap caused by ending Certificates of Education in the 1980s. Until then, teaching students were trained through teacher training colleges, which were managed by Area Training Centres. From the late 1960s onwards, the certificates were gradually wound down. This continued until the law changed in the 1980s when a Certificate of Education was replaced with specific graduate and postgraduate courses. 

During the same period, many teacher training colleges across Great Britain were closed or merged into larger higher education institutions. In London, 19 out of 26 colleges were merged into other institutions, while the remaining seven colleges closed. The University of London, as the awarding university, has had the pleasure of reconnecting with these graduates and awarding them the recognition they truly deserve.

An estimated 10,868 years of teaching 

The ceremony in Guernsey took place on 21 June, where five graduates from Furzedown College of Education and Stockwell College of Education met with Pro Vice-Chancellor (International, Learning and Teaching) Professor Mary Stiasny OBE to receive their honorary degrees. Among them was former Headteacher Myrtle Tabel of 30 years standing, who in 1999 was awarded a CBE for services to education. 

Attending the London event on 6 June, Vice-Chancellor Professor Wendy Thomson CBE, said: “I was delighted to preside over the honorary teaching degree ceremonies. These honorary graduates made invaluable contributions to the teaching profession and have cumulatively taught hundreds of thousands of children. On behalf of the University of London, I thank each honorary graduate for choosing to become a teacher and for their dedication to the profession.” 

An incredible 90 per cent of the graduates at the London event were female, and the ceremony was also an opportunity for Professor Mary Stiasny OBE to recognise their collective power and decades of experience.

Thank you for your dedication 

We would like to thank all those honorary graduates for joining us for these joyful celebrations and for their dedication to the teaching profession. Thanks to the collective support of our community, we have been able to reconnect with nearly 1,800 former teachers since the project began in 2023.