Vikas Pota, Chief Executive of the Varkey Foundation, was awarded an honorary degree by Aston University last month, just over a week after the Foundation awarded the US$1M Global Teacher Prize to Hanan Al Hroub, from Samiha Khalil High School, Al-Bireh, Palestine.
He was awarded the Honorary DSc at Birmingham Town Hall today in the university’s degree ceremony for his services to global education. Previous of recipients of honourary degrees from Aston University include Andy Street, Managing Director of John Lewis, The Right Hon Lord Heseltine of Thenford and Evan Davis, BBC journalist and presenter.
This year’s graduation ceremonies are of particular significance as 2016 marks the 50th Anniversary of Aston as university. Aston was granted its Royal Charter on 22nd April 1966, completing the transformation from a College of Advanced Technology into a university.
Professor Dame Julia King, Vice Chancellor and Chair of Senate at Aston University, said: “We are delighted to award an Honorary Degree to Vikas Pota. His achievements are immense, and he is highly regarded and recognised around the world for his work with the Varkey Foundation, supporting and encouraging teachers globally, and rallying political leaders and the private sector to education initiatives. We are proud of Vikas Pota as an Aston graduate, and look forward to his continuing engagement with the University”.
The not for profit Varkey Foundation runs the Global Teacher Prize, which was set up to honour one exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession as well as to shine a spotlight on the important role teachers play in society. Now in its second year, the US$1 million award is the largest prize of its kind.
This year’s prize, awarded on the 13th March, was announced via a special video message from His Holiness Pope Francis. As well as the announcement by the Pope, video messages of congratulations were featured in the ceremony from US Vice President Joe Biden and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.
As well as overseeing the Global Teacher Prize, Vikas also commissioned and co-wrote the Global Teacher Status Index - the first comprehensive attempt to measure teacher status across the world.
The Foundation seeks to improve global teacher capacity and promotes universal access to quality education. Through the Foundation, Vikas has pioneered an ambitious programme to train 250,000 teachers across Africa that is winning plaudits from Government and NGO leaders across the region.
He is is also the convener of the Global Education & Skills Forum (GESF), which takes place annually in Dubai and has become known as the 'Davos of Education' due to its laser-like focus on finding practical solutions to solve some of the world's pressing education problems.
Vikas serves on a number of UNESCO international education panels, including the Girls & Female Education Panel, the Teachers Task Force and the Global Alliance of Corporate Partners for Education
As a result of his achievements, Vikas was named by the World Economic Forum as a 'Young Global Leader' in 2013. This honour is bestowed each year to recognise the most distinguished leaders under the age of 40, nominated from around the world. Previous YGLs include Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg and David Cameron.
Vikas is the author of 'India Inc: How India's Top Ten Entrepreneurs Are Winning Globally'. He is regularly asked to provide media commentary on subjects ranging from education, skills and entrepreneurship to Indian economic and public policy issues. He has appeared in many major news outlets.
In response to the award, Vikas said: “I am delighted to receive this award and honoured that Dame Julia and the distinguished Senate of Aston University have chosen me for this recognition. It is particularly gratifying as Aston University is renowned throughout the world for both its leading edge research and for its world-class teaching quality, with such strong links to industry, government and commerce.”
Three postgraduate and foundation degree ceremonies in total took place at the grade-1 listed landmark today, which first opened as a music hall in 1834. Students from across Aston’s four Schools were commended for their hard work.
During the ceremonies, the University awarded nine honorary degrees to leading individuals in fields such as business, banking, healthcare, politics and education - eight of whom studied at Aston and are alumni of the university. Honorary degree recipients that joined Vikas Pota include Barbara Cattell, Professor the Honourable Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, Sultan Choudhury, Santrupt Misra, Professor Kevin Morley, Viswas Raghavan, Shriti Vadera and Haresh Vaswani.
