WBS alum receives Honorary Doctorate for years of public service

After dedicating his life to public service, a graduate from the early days of Warwick Business School has received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Warwick.

Karamjit Singh CBE, whose first job in 1971 was as a Research Associate in the Industrial Relations Research Unit that later became part of Warwick Business School, was made an Honorary Doctor of Laws at a ceremony yesterday for his administrative achievements in the public sector, which include work in the medical field, both within the NHS in the UK and in medical camps in India.

This follows a long career that took him from research work and a Master’s in Industrial Relations (awarded in 1976) at the School of Industrial Relations and Business Studies to service in local government, community work, and chairing NHS mental health and acute hospital trusts. 

“As a proud Coventrian and child of migrants who was born and has always lived in the city, it is a tremendous privilege to be awarded this honorary degree by Warwick University,” Karamjit, 74, said.

Karamjit’s parents were among the earliest South Asian settlers arriving in Coventry during the 1940s, and the public servant has never forgotten his roots, serving as a trustee of the Gurdwara Guru Nanak Parkash, the oldest Sikh temple in the city, as well as funding and organising free medical camps in the North Indian village of his parents’ birth. 

His career trajectory, meanwhile, has taken him across different public service sectors, tackling issues such as race equality, potential police misconduct or miscarriages of justice, and the review of welfare decisions made by the Social Fund, the UK scheme designed to help people on low incomes meet exceptional expenses.

In 1990 he was awarded a 12-month residential Harkness Fellowship to study public policy in the US, and was awarded a CBE in the 2000 New Year Honours List for services to the administration of justice. 

“Since I graduated with an MA in Industrial Relations, my career trajectory has taken me across several different parts of the public sector at local, regional and national levels,” Karamjit said.  

“But I have also continued to take an interest in the University of Warwick, and during the past decades I have watched how the University and WBS have established profiles and reputations for quality which have been recognised globally.

“At the beginning of this century I was fortunate enough to have been a member of the WBS Alumni Board and subsequently the University Council so I appreciate the leadership and achievements of WBS and University, as well as the global diversity of the alumni body.”

Karamjit is currently a board member of the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry and Chair of the Warwickshire Libraries Advisory Committee. He is also member of the Companions Board of the Chartered Institute of Management and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.