LSE honours Professor Yunus
Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus received an honorary doctoral degree in economics from London School of Economics on Thursday.
In a formal ceremony at the Old Theatre of the LSE attended by over 500 faculty and students, the Director of the LSE, Dr Judith Rees conferred the Honorary Degree to Professor Yunus after a formal oration by Prof Stuart Corbridge, Pro-Director of the School. In the oration, Prof Corbridge mentioned that the intuitions that Prof Yunus developed through creating Grameen Bank has helped to change the way we see the world. He invited Professor Yunus to give LSE the honor of coming and teaching at the LSE whenever he had the opportunity to do so.
In his acceptance speech, Prof Yunus said that the current global economic crisis is a wake up call to bring a new human civilization to the world, one where no one has to suffer the indignity of umemployment and poverty. He said that the young people, the most powerful generation in human history, have to take the lead to create the new civilization. In the long history of London School of Economics only 19 distinguished persons were given the honorary degree before Professor Yunus.
Earlier in the day, Prof Yunus addressed the Good Deals conference with social entrepreneurs and social investors. He delivered a lecture on Social Business as a way to solve society's pressing needs at Chatham House. The session was chaired by Paul Yaw Boateng, former Member of Parliament from the Labour Party.
During his two days in London, Professor Yunus participated in a meeting by Glasgow Caledonian University to discuss the set up of a Grameen style microcredit bank in Scotland also discussions on social business organized by Wavelength and Deloitte.
