Honorary degrees

University of Oxford. DCL: Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic.

Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh

DBA: George Borthwick, president of Ethicon Europe, governor of the college (1989-1995) and honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh.

DLitt: Blaise Cronin, former principal research officer at the Association of Information Management, professor of information science at Indiana University; Prue Leith, cookery writer and broadcaster, UK's Business Woman of the Year 1990, vice president of the Restaurateurs' Association of Great Britain, trustee of the Good Food Foundation and British Food Heritage Trust.

DSc: David Carter, Regius chair of clinical surgery at the University of Edinburgh, chief medical officer for Scotland.

University of Lincolnshire and Humberside

Honorary doctorates have been presented to: John Godber, playwright and artistic director of Hull Truck Theatre; Peter Townsend, emeritus professor of social policy at the University of Bristol; John Davison, co-founder and former chief executive of the Groundwork Trust.