Queen Camilla stepped in for King Charles and presented The Queen’s Anniversary Prizes on Thursday, celebrating higher education within the United Kingdom.

The Queen’s Anniversary Prizes are awarded every two years and recognise “outstanding work by UK colleges and universities that shows quality and innovation and delivers real benefit to the wider world and public through education and training,” according to their official website.

The prizes are named after the late Queen Elizabeth II, and have been presented since 1994. Delivered in a two-year cycle, these prizes honour the work of 2022-2024.  

Since the Anniversary Prizes’ creation in 1994, 86 universities and 59 further education colleges have received a combined 318 prizes.

Queen Camilla was accompanied by the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester to present the awards to this year’s crop of winners at a Buckingham Palace ceremony.

Twenty-two prizes were announced in November 2023 for this crop of winners. Among them, the University of the Arts London for their work in shaping the fashion industry; the City of Glasgow College for working on ways to save seafarers by finding solutions to oxygen depletion in enclosed spaces; the University of Lincoln for agri-food technological innovations; and Scotland’s Rural College for excellence in veterinary services.

The Queen’s Anniversary Prizes are overseen by the Royal Anniversary Trust, which was set up in 1990, ahead of Queen Elizabeth II’s Ruby Jubilee, to focus on educational activities on a national level.

The King had been due to attend this year’s prize ceremony before his cancer diagnosis forced him to scale back public engagements while receiving treatment.

Since their inception, 15 rounds of winners have been announced. King Charles and Princess Anne presented the last round of winners with their prizes in February 2022.