Top honours for Malaghan Institute chairman

Top honours for Malaghan Institute chairman and Treaty of Waitangi scholar

Victoria University will confer honorary degrees on Graham Malaghan, Chairman of the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, and Emeritus Professor Alan Ward, a New Zealand colonial history scholar.

Chair of the Board, Graham Malaghan has successfully overseen the rebuilding of the Malaghan Institute into the largest independent medical research organisation in New Zealand, with over 80 staff and students and an established capital fund of $5million. He has been Chairman of the Institute since 1990.

The Malaghan Institute plays a leading role in conducting a wide range of internationally recognised health research that has recently included developing a breakthrough vaccine for the treatment of cancer and identifying a number of possible drug treatments for inflammatory diseases.

Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University Professor Pat Walsh says Mr Malaghan, who will receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Science, actively championed the process leading up to the Malaghan Institute’s formal relationship with Victoria University and its successful establishment at Victoria’s Kelburn campus in 2004.

“His vision, commitment and prudent stewardship have ensured that the Institute has enjoyed constant support from the University and community, with the Institute becoming a conduit for strengthening relationships between Victoria and other New Zealand universities, Capital and Coast District Health, Industrial Research Ltd, and leading international research organisations.”

Emeritus Professor Alan Ward, who will receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, has for over four decades been recognised as a pre-eminent scholar of New Zealand colonial history and the author of one of the most important and influential works of history to be published in this country.

A Show of Justice: Racial “Amalgamation” in Nineteenth Century New Zealand, published in 1974, and revised again in 1995, was a seminal work. It initiated a historical awareness of the bases of colonial administration in 19th century New Zealand and remains the standard reference work for all discussions about the impact upon Māori of colonial law.

Professor Pat Walsh says Professor Ward’s role as a public historian richly deserves recognition by Victoria University, where he did his undergraduate training in the early 1950s.

“For more than two decades, Alan Ward has dedicated himself to the work of the Waitangi Tribunal and the settlement of historical Treaty claims.”

Professor Ward’s three-volume work National Overview, published in 1997, offered an overall assessment on the nature of Māori Treaty grievances. It is regarded as the most comprehensive and authoritative perspective to emerge from within the historical claims process.

“His intellectual leadership within the Waitangi Tribunal process has commanded the highest levels of respect from all parties and has set the foundations for change, helping to shape, as well as record, New Zealand’s history,” says Professor Walsh.

Professor Alan Ward and Graham Malaghan will both receive their degrees at Victoria University’s December graduation.

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