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The government today announced twelve university departments that are deemed to be outstanding are to have the prestigious title of Regius Professor bestowed upon them by The Queen to mark

the Diamond Jubilee. The Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts, and the Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform, Chloe Smith, today wrote to the successful

institutions to inform them of the awards.

A Regius Professorship is a rare privilege, with only two created in the past century. It is a reflection of the exceptionally high quality of teaching and research at an institution. Each

institution will assign the title to an existing Professor at the chosen department or will appoint a new professor to take the chair and hold the title.

The Queen will bestow the awards after taking advice from ministers, who were in turn advised by a panel of eminent academics led by Sir Graeme Davies, former Vice-Chancellor of the

University of London.

When universities were invited to apply, six new Regius Professorships had been planned. However, the twelve winning submissions were judged by the panel to have been of exceptionally high

quality and Ministers and The Queen agreed that twelve should be awarded.

David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, said:

Chloe Smith, Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform, said:

In the past, Regius Professorships were created when a university chair was founded or endowed by a Royal patron. Before today, they were limited to a handful of the ancient universities of

the United Kingdom and Ireland, namely Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Trinity College, Dublin.

The title of Regius Professor has notably been held by the late historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and the 18th century poet Thomas Gray, who was

Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge.

The creation of Regius Professorships falls under the Royal Prerogative, and each appointment is approved by the Monarch on ministerial advice. Only two others have been awarded in the last

century, to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin in 2009. Before then, the most recent Regius Professorship was created by Queen Victoria.

1.All entries were assessed by the expert panel on the merits of their application alone, against a scoring system based on the criteria, with greatest weight given to the excellence of the

university’s work in the proposed discipline and the recognition the discipline has gained. 5 x more weight was given to the two primary criteria:

2.The chairman of the expert panel was Sir Graeme Davies, Vice-Chancellor of the University of London until 2010.