Mary McAleese, president of Ireland, will today receive an honorary degree from the University of Surrey. She was nominated for the degree by St Mary's University College, Twickenham, one of the university's accredited institutions, which has strong links with Ireland.
Surrey is also awarding honorary degrees to John Taylor, director general of the research councils; Sir Richard Sykes, chairman of Glaxo Wellcome plc; and Stephen Holt, recently retired rector and chief executive of the Roehampton Institute.
The University of St Andrews has awarded honorary degrees to principal Struther Arnott and his wife Greta Arnott. Professor Arnott, who retires at the end of December, becomes a doctor of laws; Mrs Arnott, a former teacher, becomes a doctor of letters.
Heavyweight champion of the world Lennox Lewis and pharmacologist Susan Greenfield will become honorary doctors of the University of North London next week. The university is also making honorary awards to David Madden, ambassador to Greece (DUniv); Roger Needham, managing director of Microsoft Research Ltd (DUniv); Sandra Ashman, former deputy vice-chancellor (honorary fellow); John Thompson, former governor (honorary fellow); Valentin Batukhtin, rector of Chelyabinsk State University (DUniv) and Sir Dennis Weatherstone, president of JP Morgan (DUniv).
The University of Bradford is to award honorary degrees to Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman (DLitt); BBC director general Sir John Birt (DLitt); Peter Sallis, Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine (DLitt); Paul Gallagher, former principal of Bradford College (DUniv); and Zahida Manzoor, chairman of the Northern and Yorkshire Region NHS executive (DSC).
Neville Lawrence, founder of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, has been awarded an honorary doctorate of education by the University of East London. The university has also awarded honorary degrees to: Ian Maclay, general manager of the BBC Concert Orchestra (DBA); Craig Sharp, sports medicine specialist (DSc); Nick Scheele, president of Ford Europe (DTech); Ken Mortimer, former manager of education programmes, Ford (DBA); Angela Flowers, gallery owner (DArts); Sir John Knill, hydrogeologist (DTech); John Lill, pianist (DArts); Helmut Rothenberg, founder of the Rothenberg Memorial Trust, which works to support mental health initiatives (DBA).
City University has awarded honorary degrees to Steve Shirley, life president of FI Group plc; Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach, vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs (Europe) and chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies; Judith Mayhew, chairman of the Corporation of London's policy and resources committee; Clive Martin, Lord Mayor of London; and Ludwik Finkelstein, the university's emeritus professor of measurement and instrumentation.
The University of Sunderland has awarded honorary degrees to David Parfitt, producer of the Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love, and Alan Hinkes, who is attempting to climb all 14 of the world's 8,000m-plus peaks.