It’s raining accolades for A R Rahman. The music maestro recently made a trip to London’s prestigious Middlesex University where he was conferred an honourary doctorate from the varsity in music on Tuesday. This comes in quick succession after his Academy Award win and another doctorate that he received from Aligarh Muslim University last month. However, this only marks the beginning as another doctorate from the Madras University should be coming soon too.

Though exhilarated at having received the honour, the reticent musician has chosen to not use the title. “This is a very special moment indeed and the beginning of a lasting relationship,” the maestro said in response to our congratulatory message. His statement also referred to the affiliation that his one-year-old KM Music Conservatory now has with the London university.

“We were in talks with the institution for joint programmes between them and Rahman’s music school. On the occasion of the convocation, we also signed an MoU which allows us to offer degree programmes in music from Middlesex University. This would mean that our students enrolled for thisprogramme will spend their third year at Middlesex University,” revealed T Selvakumar, director, KM Music Conservatory, who accompanied Rahman for the convocation.

He added that talks are also on for programmes that would allow students to spend all three years at Middlesex and would encourage foreign students to learn Indian classical music at the Conservatory.