A former college principal and awarding body chair who was recently appointed to the House of Lords has admitted incorrectly claiming that she had a PhD.
Dame Ann Limb, who has chaired City & Guilds since 2021, published a CV on her website stating that she had a “PhD University of Liverpool” and an MA in “applied linguistics” from the Institute of Linguists.
But the former Milton Keynes and Cambridge Regional College principal has now admitted this was incorrect after an investigation by the Sunday Times, telling the paper that she started but “never” completed a PhD at the university.
The information about Limb’s 1970s PhD was published on her personal website in a CV that appears to have been uploaded in August 2020 and refers to her as “Dr”.
Her “Dr” title has repeatedly appeared in high-profile biographies, including the Cabinet Office’s Queen’s birthday honours 2022 list that awarded her a damehood, a 2021 City and Guilds’ announcement that she had been appointed the charity’s chair, and a recent University of Liverpool post celebrating her peerage.
Responding to the Sunday Times, Limb said: “Just to be completely upfront and honest about it, I never completed my PhD at Liverpool University.”
She added that she used the word “doctor” because she has several honorary doctorates, but admitted that her website is “perhaps not very helpful”.
The 72-year-old was nominated for a peerage by Sir Keir Starmer two weeks ago, becoming the first former further education college principal to be appointed to the House of Lords.
She will sit on the Labour benches and will take the title Baroness Limb of Moss Side in the city of Manchester and County of Lancashire.
Limb’s CV says she has been awarded seven honorary doctorates from universities since 2003.
Universities often offer honorary doctorates for recognition of personal, academic or professional achievement, but recipients tend not to use the title.
A new CV appears to have been uploaded to Limb’s website in July 2024 that removed the ‘Dr’ title and claim that she had achieved a PhD in 1978, three years after completing her bachelor’s degree.
However, it continues to claim that she was awarded an MA in “Applied Linguistics Final Diploma Institute of Linguists (Distinction)” in 1976.
The Institute of Linguists, now known as the Chartered Institute of Linguists, told the Sunday Times: “We have never awarded MAs.”
Limb’s website also refers to her career in further education beginning in 1976 “whilst she was undertaking her PhD at the University of Liverpool”.
She said: “I undertook a PhD at Liverpool University which I did not complete. I have been awarded several honorary PhDs and therefore used the title Dr prior to being awarded a Damehood.
“The postgraduate Maitrise des Lettres (MA) completed in France in the mid 1970’s was unrelated to membership of the Institute of Linguists for which I took and passed a separate exam.”
Limb has held a range of chair roles, including the Scouts, Lloyds Bank’s charitable arm, and King Charles’ King’s Foundation.
As chair of City & Guilds she co-wrote a piece for FE Week justifying the sale of the 150-year-old technical education awarding body to a Greek certification business to avoid it sliding “imperceptibly into irrelevance”.
Limb remains chair of the City & Guilds Foundation charity.
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