Teachers get unexpected honorary degree upgrade

Ian and Jan Ball said it was a "very special day" when they received their honorary degrees

A couple who met and married at a teacher training college in the 1970s have returned to their former alma mater to have their qualifications "upgraded" in an honorary degree ceremony.

Jan and Ian Ball, who live in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, went to Shoreditch College between 1969 and 1974.

They both graduated with teaching certificates but have now been awarded honorary bachelors of education by Brunel University, as it is now known.

Mrs Ball, 72, said it was "not expected at all" and a day "we never thought would happen".

Ian and Jan Ball were married on 31 March 1973 while they were both training to be teachers

When they began their training, degrees were not available, Mrs Ball said.

The qualification "did not hold us back in any way", but meant they were paid less than people with degrees, she added.

She started her training in 1971. Mr Ball, 74, started his in 1969 and they got married in March 1973.

After graduation, Mrs Ball, an English teacher, eventually became the deputy head at Bushey Hall School, now Grange Academy, in Hertfordshire, and her husband was a design technology teacher in Harrow.

They eventually moved to Great Barford, Bedfordshire, and lived there for 13 years, before recently relocating to St Neots.

Ian and Jan's two children, Michael Ball and Helen Maberly, were able to share the "unique" day with their parents

Mrs Ball said: "I was not expecting this upgrade at all, but we've been recognised for our services to education."

She said it had all been "a strange, but wonderful turn of events".

"We never thought it would happen."

Their children, Helen Maberly and Michael Ball, saw their second graduation.

"The ceremony was very moving and paid tribute to our years of teaching," Mrs Ball said.

The event was especially poignant, as the couple were the first from their families to go to college.

She said: "How very proud would they [our parents] have been to have seen us today?"

The pair are now retired and love spending time travelling