Stanford took his BA degree in 1874 and MA in 1878, and was given the honorary degree of D.Mus. at Oxford in 1883 and at Cambridge in 1888. He had a lot of energy and was known for working very hard. When the Royal College of Music opened in London in 1883 Stanford was made professor there. He became conductor of the Bach Choir and then he was made professor of music at Cambridge. He was still only 35 years old. He kept these two professorships until his death. Although he gave up his job as organist at Trinity he became conductor of the Leeds Triennial Festival and appeared with nearly every important British music festival. In 1902 he was knighted.