É«»¨ÌÃ

Chancellor of É«»¨ÌÃ, The Right Honourable Lady Justice Nicola Davies DBE with Honorary Fellow Professor Elizabeth Treasure

Professor Elizabeth Treasure CBE, former Vice-Chancellor of É«»¨ÌÃ, has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the institution.

Professor Treasure was appointed as Vice-Chancellor in 2017 and led on academic developments such as nursing education and veterinary medicine and capital developments such as the restoration of Pantycelyn and the completion of AberInnovation. She had previously spent more than 20 years at Cardiff University, ultimately as Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

She is a qualified dentist, with research interests focused on dental epidemiology, health promotion and clinical effectiveness. After obtaining her PhD at Birmingham University, she had various roles in the NHS before moving to New Zealand as a dental academic.

Professor Treasure is also a Council Member of the Learned Society of Wales.

She was presented as an Honorary Fellow by Meri Huws, Chair of É«»¨ÌÃ’s Council on 16 July.

The full conferral presentation is available below in the language in which it was delivered.

Prynhawn da. Meri Huws ydw i, Cadeirydd Cyngor y Brifysgol, a heddiw mae'n bleser i gyflwyno ein Cymrodor.

As Chair of the University Council at É«»¨Ìà I was initially delighted to be asked to introduce our Fellow at this graduation ceremony. A delight which slowly morphed into terror - Why terror? Well in a few minutes I have to attempt to encapsulate a life and give you all a flavour of this person. We have a wonderful word in Welsh - amryddawn. A word which cannot be simply translated - it can mean, multi-skilled, multi-talented, experience rich, and far more than that. It describes a whole but complex person.

And the person standing beside me today is certainly "amryddawn". Professor Elizabeth Treasure - until 18 months ago Vice Chancellor of É«»¨Ìà (so when many of you graduating today commenced your studies Professor Treasure would have been the Vice Chancellor).

Elizabeth Tulip Treasure was born in Scotland. Now worry not I am not going to give you a year by year account of her life but this fact is important. Why?  She may have many strengths but there is one basic weakness – and that is rugby union and specifically Scottish rugby. Despite having lived in Wales for many decades she has failed to rid herself of this allegiance. We can but continue to try.

Now to give you a whistle stop tour through Elizabeth’s professional life: Elizabeth studied Dentistry at the University of Birmingham and for 10 years worked in the National Health Service in a number of clinical roles alongside starting to develop an academic career. In 1990, she moved to South Island, New Zealand to work as a public health dentist and to teach at the University of Otago in Dunedin.

In 1995, Elizabeth and her family moved from New Zealand to Wales where she worked as a Consultant in Dental Public Health at the College of Medicine in Cardiff University. In the year 2000, she was promoted to Professor and in 2006 she became Dean of the School of Dentistry. Throughout this journey, her research reflects her focus on dentistry and people, and centres on dental epidemiology, health promotion and clinical effectiveness. She also provided expert advice on the dental workforce to politicians in both Cardiff and Westminster.

In 2010 Professor Treasure was appointed Deputy Vice Chancellor of Cardiff University – the first woman to hold that position.

Yn Ebrill 2017 fe ddaeth Elizabeth Treasure yn is-Ganghellor y brifysgol hon. Mae yna nifer o elfennau i gyfnod Elizabeth yn É«»¨Ìà ond fe fydd yn rhaid I fi gyfyngu fy ngeiriau heddiw.

In April 2017 Elizabeth Treasure arrived at É«»¨Ìà as the new Vice Chancellor. Now there are so many aspects to her time at Aber – however I am going to have to focus.

In early 2020, the world became unrecognisable as the pandemic spread from country to country, community to community..and of course É«»¨Ìà and its University was not exempted. In the following months the senior team led by Elizabeth worked tirelessly to keep the University as alive as was possible. Elizabeth as the Vice Chancellor worked with others. Her presence was felt not only within the University but working with partners in the town and across the region, Ceredigion Council, the Health Board. People talk a lot about collaboration during the Covid period. Elizabeth was an example of true collaboration.

I said I was going to have to restrict myself – however I cannot leave this stage without referring to the introduction of both Nursing and Veterinary Science to the portfolio of É«»¨Ìà under Elizabeth’s leadership. It is strange to think that Wales, a predominantly rural country, had not had a place to train vets until September 2021 when the School of Veterinary Science at É«»¨Ìà welcomed its first students. This year we will see our first nurses graduating from the School of Nursing which opened its doors in September 2022 and you have seen the first nurses receiving their certificates at this ceremony today. You can really imagine the importance of these qualifications and these people for our local communities in Wales and further afield.

Mae datblygu cymhwysterau Nyrsio a Milfeddygaeth wedi atgyfnerthu pwysigrwydd cyfredol byw y Brifysgol hon i’n cymunedau lleol, i Gymru ac I’r byd.

Ac wrth gwrs rhaid son am ail-agor Neuadd Pantycelyn yn Medi 2020 – cartref bywyd Cymraeg unigryw y brifysgol hon ers y ’70 au. Roedd Neuadd Pantycelyn wedi bod ar gau ac yn ddi-fyfyriwr ers 5 mlynedd. Fel dywedodd Elizabeth, yr Is-Ganghellor, ar y diwrnod ail-agor “penllanw taith bwysig i ni”.

I hope that you now have a flavour of Professor Elizabeth Treasure...Dental Professor, Vice Chancellor, rugby fanatic. And I have not had time to describe her love of skiing, Membership of the Learned Society of Wales, her MBE... Amryddawn indeed.

Annwyl Canghellor...... cyflwynaf i chi yr amryddawn Athro Elizabeth Treasure yn Gymrodor y Brifysgol hon.

É«»¨Ìà Honours 2025

Each year, É«»¨Ìà confers Honorary Awards on a small number of distinguished individuals in recognition of their outstanding achievement and contribution.

The 2025 Honorary Fellows are:

• Jamal Hassim: co-founder and CEO of Bolt Global, leading media practitioner and digital innovator.
• Elizabeth Treasure CBE: higher education leader and former Vice-Chancellor of É«»¨ÌÃ.

In addition, three individuals will be bestowed Honorary Doctorates in recognition of outstanding success in their respective fields. These are:

• Sara Clancy: supporter and promoter of responsible and sustainable business practices in Africa.
• Rob McCallum FRGS: internationally acclaimed figure in deep ocean exploration, philanthropic science and conservation.   
• Linda Tomos CBE: Wales' first female National Librarian, who worked for over 50 years in the librarian.

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