OXFORD: The Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Muhammad V was yesterday conferred an honorary fellowship by his alma mater, St Cross College, University of Oxford, in a brief ceremony held at the college on Wednesday.
His Majesty received the certificate and a college medal from Master of the College, Carole Souter, CBE, who said while it was always a pleasure to welcome returning former students, it was a very rare honour to welcome a returning King and the college had wished to mark the occasion with the award of the honorary fellowship.
“This is the highest honour that we have to offer. I hope that Your Majesty will accept a certificate to mark the occasion and our college medal as a token of our appreciation,” said Souter before introducing His Majesty to seven Malaysian students currently studying at the college as well as dignitaries and staff of the college.
According to a statement from the college, “The Honorary Fellowship is held for the lifetime of the recipient with perpetual dining rights and celebrated membership of the college. The honorary fellowships at the college are held by a small and very select group of highly esteemed and eminent individual.”
Sultan Muhammad V was educated at the Oakham School in Rutland until 1989, and went on to pursue his education in Diplomatic Studies at St Cross College as well as Islamic Studies at the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies (OCIS) until 1991.
Among the dignitaries accompanying His Majesty to the ceremony were the Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh as minister in attendance, Malaysian High Commissioner to UK and Northern Ireland Datuk Ahmad Rasidi Hazizi, Chief of Protocol Datuk Mohd Ashri Muda, Comptroller of the Royal Household Datuk Wan Ahmad Dahlan Hj Abd Aziz and Chief of Ceremony Datuk Kamis Samin.
Earlier, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, Professor Louise Richardson, in a welcoming speech said: “The University of Oxford has long been attracting international students; the first international student, Emo of Friesland in the year 1119 and we have been welcoming international students ever since. Today, around 20 per cent of our university students are from across the world and 64 per cent are post graduate students. And we are delighted to count you as among that number. We have been delighted to organise this special day.”
During the two-hour visit to the college, His Majesty reminisced his time as a student here.
After dinner, His Majesty visited his other alma mater, the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS) where he pursued his Islamic studies.
Despite the freezing cold temperature and although it was already dark, His Majesty kindly agreed to plant a tree in the compounds of the centre and was later taken on a tour of the building by OCIS Director Dr Farhan Ahmad Nizami, who was also a former lecturer of His Majesty.
In May last year, His Majesty attended the inauguration of the £100 million centre. Malaysia is one of many Muslim countries that had contributed to the building, which has a Malaysia Auditorium featuring Terengganu’s Bakawali wood carving arts by master carver Norhaiza Noordin.