Honorary degrees

University of Sunderland

DBA: Llew Aviss, personnel director at Siemens Microelectronics Ltd, president of the Regional Chamber of Commerce, board member of Northern Development Company, director of Northern Sinfonia and a deputy lieutenant of Durham

DLitt: Denise Robertson, novelist and playwright, presenter of ITV's This Morning programme, president of the National Council for Divorced and Separated, National Association of Writers Groups and St Benedict's Hospice in Sunderland.

LLD: Alan Benjamin, chairman, Quality Software Products Ltd.

Middlesex University

LLD: Walter Boreham, chief constable in the Ministry of Defence Police; John Brandon-Jones, architect; George Carey, archbishop of Canterbury; Anne-Marie Costain, managing director, PTRC Education and Research Services Ltd; Rachel "Trixie" Gardner, chairman of the Royal Free NHS Trust; Eva Haberfellner, former dean of European Business Administration Faculty, Germany; Terry Hands, former chief executive and artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company; Michael Lyons, chief executive of Birmingham City Council; David Melville, first vice chancellor of the university; Colin Sorensen, former keeper of modern collections at the Museum of London.

MA: Colin Wharton, principal of Woodhouse College, Finchley.

Nottingham Trent University

DEng: Cyril Hilsum, professor, in recognition of his contribution to the development of flat-screen and liquid crystal displays, former scientist with the Ministry of Defence and chief scientist/director of research at GEC, research adviser to Unilever, the European Commission and Defence Evaluation and Research Agency.

LLD: Philip Otton, Lord Justice of Appeal.

MA: Mich Stevenson, chairman of the Museum of Law Trust Company, Nottingham Development Enterprise, and director of the Nottingham Board of the Prince's Youth Business Trust.