A boy from war-torn Sri Lanka - Nishan Canagarajah receives his knighthood

British Tamil Professor Sir Nishan Canagarajah has been knighted by King Charles at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on Tuesday, formally conferring an honour that caps a remarkable journey for the University of Leicesters vice-chancellor, from wartime Jaffna to the upper reaches of British public life.

Canagarajah, a British Tamil academic, was recognised in the 2026 Kings New Year Honours for his contribution to higher education and, in particular, his championing of inclusion. During the ceremony, the King followed tradition in touching the shoulders of the kneeling professor with a sword before conferring the knighthood. Canagarajah travelled to Berkshire with his wife, Thabi.

"I am deeply honoured and grateful to receive this award from King Charles. It is a recognition of the efforts of so many others who have contributed to my success, including my dear friends and family and colleagues both past and present," he said.

"I also hope it will serve as an inspiration for others. As a boy from the once war-torn land of Sri Lanka, to being recognised by royalty is quite a remarkable journey. It is because of the transformative power of education and the opportunities it presents that this has been possible. That is why I remain committed to removing barriers for others so that they too can fulfil their true potential."

Born and educated in Jaffna, Canagarajah attended St Johns College, where he was head prefect in 1985, before moving to Britain to study at the University of Cambridge, taking a degree in electronics and information sciences and then a doctorate in digital signal processing. He built an academic career at the University of Bristol across two decades, rising to pro vice-chancellor for research and enterprise, before becoming president and vice-chancellor of the University of Leicester in November 2019, a field in which he is internationally recognised for his research on signal processing.

As the first vice-chancellor from a minority ethnic background at Leicester, in what is often described as Britains first plural-majority city, Canagarajah has made inclusion the defining theme of his leadership. He leads one of the most diverse universities in the country, where 38 per cent of students come from the most disadvantaged areas and 69 per cent from minority ethnic backgrounds, and he founded the Leicester Institute for Inclusion in Higher Education in response to the race awarding gap across the sector. He established the citys first IntoUniversity centre, supporting a thousand disadvantaged young people, secured the universitys first female chancellor, Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock, and, as head of a University of Sanctuary, extended support to refugees and to displaced Ukrainian and Palestinian academics.

Beyond the campus, he has led a Civic Universities Partnership that has drawn more than £3 million into local community projects, and taken on national roles in higher education, most recently as chair of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association in 2025, having previously chaired The Conversation and served on the board of Universities UK. Under his tenure the university has been named University of the Year three times, achieved Teaching Excellence Framework Gold and ranked among the countrys top 30 for research, while forging international partnerships from India, where he joined the largest-ever British government trade mission, to Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, China and North America.

His path, from a schoolboy in a Jaffna that would endure some of the darkest chapters of the armed conflict to a knighthood at Windsor, stands as a testament both to the value he places on education and to the distinction of a diaspora that has made its mark across British public life.