Following his 10-year stint as president and provost of University College London (UCL), Sir Malcolm, who is also a graduate of the University of Otago, was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in the United Kingdom for services to higher education.
The 65-year-old, who formerly played the organ in the WBHS Hall of Memories during the 1960s, was appointed to the prestigious position at UCL in 2003, and just one year later launched a funding campaign for the university which raised an extra 300 million to expand its facilities.
He received a CBE in 2003 for services to planning law and local government.
Former WBHS classmate Warwick Smith, of Oamaru, said he was ''delighted'' to hear that his friend had been made a ''Sir''.
''We are enormously proud of what he has achieved. He's part of an extraordinary class of '64 at WBHS. There were some extraordinary people in that year who really have gone on.
''He is a tremendous son of Oamaru and really just a shining light of what a good school Waitaki Boys' was and is.''
