UBC to award an honorary degree to His Highness the Aga Khan

His Highness the Aga Khan will be awarded honorary degrees by the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Simon Fraser University (SFU) during a special joint honorary degree conferral ceremony in Vancouver, Canada on 19 October 2018. The two universities will be awarding His Highness with honorary doctorate of laws degrees in recognition of his work to improve the quality of life of millions of people around the world.

UBC partners with the Aga Khan Academies and the International Baccalaureate (IB) on the Academies' Teacher Preparation Programme (TPP). Under the agreement, UBC faculty members assess porfolios produced by TPP interns in order for them to be recognised by the International Baccalaureate for an IB educators certificate.

Meredith Fenton, Director of IB programs in the faculty of education at UBC, said, "Such a partnership between the AKA and UBC brings the combined capabilities and expertise of both organisations to bear on improving the educational opportunities available to young people in Africa and promotes a deeper and better informed global perspective among teachers and students in British Columbia. It reflects the true spirit of international mindedness and global citizenship, two key tenets of IB, and pluralism, so central to the work of the Academies, that we, as teacher educators and learners, aim to model and to which we aspire for the benefit of our teacher candidates and future generations of children in their care."

The degree conferral ceremony will be webcast live on the Aga Khan Development Network website.

Also this week, His Highness was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of Calgary and inaugurated the new Aga Khan Garden at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Please visit the AKDN website for further information.