FOR someone who has won 16 Paralympic medals, you might think getting another certificate wouldn’t be special.

But yesterday former wheelchair racer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson said it was “wonderful” to be in Oxford to collect her honorary degree at the Encaenia ceremony.

Baroness Grey-Thompson, inset, who also won the London Marathon wheelchair event six times, said: “It’s such a huge honour to be awarded an honorary degree from Oxford, but actually, I think it’s the ceremony that makes the day incredibly special.”

Encaenia, which is a Greek word meaning festival of renewal, takes place in the Sheldonian Theatre and involves a procession, pictured, made up of Lord Patten, Oxford University’s chancellor, the Heads of Houses and the presidents of the Junior and Middle Common Rooms.

Other famous people given honorary degrees included playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, Dame Anne Owers, the chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, and Colin Smith, the director of engineering and technology at Rolls Royce.

Picture: OX59771 Ed Nix