Body Coach founder and healthy living advocate Joe Wicks MBE awarded honorary degree (VIDEO)

Fitness coach, TV presenter and social media personality Joe Wicks MBE has been awarded an honorary degree by Loughborough University.

The award is in recognition of his work championing health and wellbeing for all, from his ‘PE with Joe’ series during the covid pandemic, fitness workouts for all abilities and hundreds of free to access healthy recipes.

Over the years Joe has grown his Body Coach brand to become one of the most followed fitness accounts on Instagram and YouTube, building a multi-million-pound international business.

Despite his entrepreneurial success Joe has always been committed to improving everyone’s health and wellbeing, giving much of his advice for free so it can be shared as widely as possible.

His dedication to improving public health matches that of Loughborough University, whose researchers champion healthy eating and movement as medicine, for everyone.

Speaking about receiving his honorary degree, Joe said: “It’s an absolute honour and a privilege to be recognised by Loughborough University in this way. The university has a great reputation in sport, health, and wellbeing so to receive an honorary degree makes me feel incredibly proud.”

 The University’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for Sport, Professor Jo Maher, added: “It is great honour for us to recognise someone who has had such a positive impact on public health and wellbeing – a cause that is the central focus of all we do here at Loughborough University.

“Joe gets the whole family moving, turns our living rooms into gyms, and makes exercise fun, using his influence to campaign for better access to healthy spaces, healthy foods, and healthy living advice.”

Joe was made an Honorary Doctor of the University at Loughborough’s graduation ceremony on Tuesday 16 July 2024.

Notes for editors

Press release reference number: 24/93

Loughborough is one of the country’s leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sport and its underpinning academic disciplines.

It has been awarded five stars in the independent QS Stars university rating scheme and named the best university in the world for sports-related subjects in the 2024 QS World University Rankings – the eighth year running.

Loughborough is ranked 6th in The UK Complete University Guide 2025, 10th in the Guardian University League Table 2024 and 10th in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024.

Loughborough is consistently ranked in the top twenty of UK universities in the Times Higher Education’s ‘table of tables’, and in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 over 90% of its research was rated as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally-excellent’. In recognition of its contribution to the sector, Loughborough has been awarded seven Queen's Anniversary Prizes.

The Loughborough University London campus is based on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and offers postgraduate and executive-level education, as well as research and enterprise opportunities. It is home to influential thought leaders, pioneering researchers and creative innovators who provide students with the highest quality of teaching and the very latest in modern thinking.

Categories