On 17 July 2025 as Professor Leighton was awarded a Higher Doctorate (a DSc) by the University of Southampton.
The citation for the award is:
‘For distinguished fundamental research, with extensive societal and humanitarian impact, in the study of climate change, the environment and safety, catastrophe relief, medical and healthcare research, extraterrestrial and planetary science, and the preservation and understanding of the oceans.’
Professor Leighton had, in 2019, previously been awarded a Higher Doctorate from the University of Cambridge. Therefore, whilst a Higher Doctorate is normally awarded by consideration of the lifetime body of work by an individual, in assessing Professor Leighton for the award, the University of Southampton only considered the work from 2020 onwards.
Although universities tend not to publish on the awards of Higher Doctorates, the University of Southampton said that for it to make such an award was ‘very rare’.
What is a Higher Doctorate?
There are four types of doctorate:
the PhD (or equivalent doctorate, such as the DPhil) is awarded for one item of original research, written up in a thesis dissertation, over a period of usually 4 years; the University of Southampton graduates over 700 PhD students each year. The PhD is characterized by the discovery of new knowledge through research.
the professional doctorate is the newest type of doctorate, where those seeking to solve practical problems in their field face assessment based on field-related doctoral study. Such degrees tend to be vocational, e.g. Doctor of Business Administration (DBA), Doctor of Education (EdD), Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), and Doctor of Public Health (DrPH). Rather than discovering new knowledge through research (as the PhD does), the professional doctorate tend to advance a vocational field through application of an existing body of knowledge, research, and theory.
the Honorary Doctorate is awarded to celebrities entertainment or the media, national sporting champions, individuals in business, politics, a etc., especially if they are former students at the university – unlike the other types of doctorate, it is not based on any contributions to, or application of, research.
- the Higher Doctorate is awarded to former staff or students, and (to quote the 2013 UKCGE report* into Higher Doctorates) they ‘ honor exceptional academic achievements and contributions to research, distinguishing them from standard doctoral degrees like the PhD…where a PhD has come to indicate mastery of a narrow field (narrow in the sense of representing three years study only), the higher doctorate m be seen as indicating command over a field of study and a sustained contribution to understanding within that field’.
Criteria include ‘Work of high distinction which constitutes an original, sustained and significant contribution to the advancement of knowledge (or scholarship) or the application of knowledge through research…[by the]… leading international authority in the field of study concerned’.
Of these four classes, the Higher Doctorate is by far the rarest form of doctorate awarded. The 2013 UKGCE report* noted that many UK universities have not awarded one since 2003 (there is little data prior to then). The responding university that had awarded the most, had awarded 11 since 2003. Universities tend not to publicize the numbers given, the UKCGE using anonymized data.
REFERENCE
* Barnes, T. (2013). Higher doctorates in the UK 2013. Staffordshire: UK Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE).