Laureation Address: Kirsty Young
Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws
Laureation by Professor Tom Rice, School of Philosophical, Anthropological and Film Studies
Wednesday 3 December 2025 – afternoon ceremony
Vice-Chancellor, it is my privilege to present for the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Kirsty Young.
Scottish to the core and with a voice once described as like “autumn leaves and expensive tweed”, Kirsty Young is a powerhouse of modern British broadcasting.
From her beginnings working in a Stirling pub, where she picked up a gig as a cameraman’s assistant from a customer, Kirsty has gone on to broadcast and present some of the most significant events in recent history. In 2022, she presented the BBC’s coverage of the funeral of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and the following year anchored coverage of the coronation of His Majesty The King, firmly cementing her place as one of the most respected, trusted and accomplished broadcasters of her generation.
Kirsty’s initial career in Scotland, post-Stirling pub, saw her quickly learning on the job, from continuity announcer to trainee newsreader before fronting her own chat show on STV. It was in 1997 that she came to wider public attention across the UK when she launched Channel 5 News. While some initial reports fixated on a newsreader breaking from convention by perching on the front of the desk, viewers quickly recognised instead her expertise, warmth and innate ability to connect across the screen.
These qualities have seen Kirsty present some of the most established and celebrated programmes (national institutions if you like), whether taking on the heavy responsibility of fronting BBC’s Crimewatch, giving as good as she gets as a guest presenter on the satirical news quiz, Have I Got News for You, or drawing out stories and experiences from some of the most revered global figures on the world’s longest-running factual radio show, Desert Island Discs.
It is perhaps here that we can really glean Kirsty’s inimitable qualities as a presenter. Warm, wise and funny, with a genuine interest in her guests, Kirsty is a presenter seemingly unencumbered by ego. Across her 12-year tenure, she interviewed 496 figures, from Sir David Attenborough to Sir David Beckham, the Archbishop of Canterbury to Debbie Harry, Bruce Springsteen to Alice Walker. Fostering the underrated quality of being a good listener, Kirsty’s ability to put guests at ease resulted in beautiful and often quietly revelatory radio.
While Kirsty was forced to step back from public life in 2018 due to the chronic long-term condition fibromyalgia, she has more recently made a welcome and very successful return to the airways as the host of Young Again, asking a diverse range of guests what advice they would give their younger self.
As a professor of Film Studies, I had initially assumed that Kirsty’s award today was in recognition of her role as Newscaster 3 in the 2004 Colin Firth film, Trauma. Indeed, Kirsty’s career shows someone willing to try new things and never taking herself too seriously – she did win Celebrity Stars in their Eyes as Peggy Lee singing Fever. However, her modesty and sense of fun should not conceal her phenomenal achievements. Indeed, these are some of the qualities that make her such an empathetic and engaging broadcaster.
Kirsty has also used her profile and position to help others, for example, serving as President of UNICEF UK. Hers remains one of the most distinctive, authoritative and reassuring voices in broadcast journalism.
Vice-Chancellor, in recognition of her major contribution to British media and broadcasting, I invite you to confer the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, on Kirsty Young.