Which university awarded J.K. Rowling an honorary Doctor of Letters degree in 2008?

Harvard University awarded J.K. Rowling an honorary Doctor of Letters degree in 2008.

The university conferred the honorary degree on Rowling at its commencement ceremony on 5 June 2008, the same event at which she delivered her speech The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination. An honorary degree recognizes achievement or contribution and is not the same as completing a university’s ordinary doctoral program.

Rowling studied French and the Classics at the University of Exeter, graduating in 1987. Her education there differed from the later honorary recognition at Harvard, which celebrated her literary achievements and public influence. Confusing those two institutions can lead to incorrect descriptions of her academic background.

The Harvard speech was later adapted into the illustrated book Very Good Lives, published in 2015. The book’s title and the speech’s title are therefore both associated with Harvard, but they are not interchangeable.