QI host now a woman of science, as well as letters

Sandi Toksvig has been awarded an honorary doctorate of science by Bournemouth university.

It is her sixth honorary doctorate, having previously been made a doctor of letters by Portsmouth, York St John, Surrey, Westminster and Leicester universities. She has also been an honorary fellow of several Oxbridge colleges.

Last year, the QI host worked with Bournemouth students and archaeologists on the investigation of an Iron Age settlement in Dorset for her television series Hidden Wonders

On receiving her award, Toksvig said: ‘I was really excited. Sometimes life plods along and somebody does something lovely like this and it’s like finding a toffee in the bottom of your bag and you think life is good!’

Recalling her time last year with the students, she added, "It was such an honour and what I loved is that we would be face-down in the dirt digging away and there would be a teenager and then there would be me, 50 years older, and we were still having a laugh and you can become friends across the generations.’

Her advice to the students receiving their degrees with her was: ‘Enjoy this moment. Be brave, be bold, be crazy. Follow your heart and don’t listen to the crowd.'

 Toksvig recently launched The Mappa Mundi project to tell the stories of women across history  – a response to the fact that about 80 per cent of Wikipedia is written by and about white men

Published: 4 Nov 2026