Honorary degrees

University of Manchester

DMus: Daniel Barenboim, pianist and conductor, musical director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Harrison Birtwistle, Henry Purcell professor of composition at Kings College, London.

DSc: Tom Husband, vice chancellor, University of Salford.

LittD: Tony Wrigley, president-elect of the British Academy, professor of economic history and master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

LLD: Brenda Hale, dame of the British Empire, High Court judge, former law commissioner and member of the faculty of law.

University of Ulster

DLitt: Sean O'Dwyer, deputy chairman of Desmond and Sons, member of the Enterprise Ulster Board, the Northern Ireland Development Agency and the NI Industrial Development Board, president of NI Partnership (1990-93), chairman of the council of the university; Gerry Robinson, chairman of BSkyB plc, chairman and former chief executive of Granada, former chief executive of the contract services division of Grand Metropolitan; Shirley Williams, life peer, co-founder of the Social Democratic Party, professor of elective politics at Harvard University.

DSc: Robin Fox, university professor of social theory at Rutgers University, New Jersey; Gary Player, golfer, honorary member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, St Andrews; Edward Walsh, founding president of the National Institute of Higher Education and of the University of Limerick, president/director of the International Commission on Technology in Higher Education, the Science Technology & Innovation Council and the Irish Peace Institute.

DUniv: Jill McIvor, former tutor in legal research and member of the editorial board for the Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, NI parliamentary commissioner for administration and commissioner for complaints (ombudsman); Samuel Semple, principal of Lisburn Technical College (1963-66), headmaster of Lisnagarvey Higher School (1966-82), trustee of Ulster Teachers' Union, director of the Somme Advisory Council.

MUniv: P. Rodgers, community leader on Tory Island, primitive artist, founder of Tory Island's art gallery, University of East London

LLD: Michael Pickard, chairman of the London Docklands Development Corporation and former chief executive of Trust House Forte and Sears plc.

University of Aberdeen

DD: Francis Macnab, minister of St Michael's Church, Melbourne and psychotherapist; Robert Eames, archbishop of Armagh.

DLitt: Roy Foster, first (Carroll) professor of Irish history at the University of Oxford, biographer of W. B. Yeats.

DSc: John Mallard, emeritus professor of medical physics at the university; Donald Miller, former chairman of Scottish Power, fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Institution of Mechanical Engineers and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

LLD: J. Maxwell Irvine, vice chancellor of the University of Birmingham and former principal of the university; Ian Hamilton, Queen's counsel, former rector of the university and sheriff of Glasgow and Strathkelvin; Lawrence Lee-Tsun Hou, pathologist, first chairman of the Aberdeen University Hong Kong Association; Barbara Kelly, businesswoman and president of Rural Forum, member of the Scottish Children's Bursary Fund and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme; Philip Love, vice chancellor, University of Liverpool and former vice principal of the university; Elizabeth Blackadder, artist, member of the Royal Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy.

Noticeboard is compiled by Lynne Williams. For further information see NetGazette http//thesis. newsint.co.uk