[1] She remained at New Hall to undertake postgraduate study, one of her supervisors was Jack A. W. Bennett, and she completed her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1971.
[citation needed] In 1996, she was awarded a Title of Distinction by the University of Oxford as Professor of English Language and Literature.
[1] In 2004, Cooper moved to the University of Cambridge, having been appointed to its Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English.
[2] She retired from full-time academics in 2014, and was appointed Professor Emeritus by Oxford and made a Life Fellow at Magdalene College.
[1] In 2001, Cooper was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) degree by Washington and Lee University in Virginia.