An Oscar-winning actor, a novelist and a judge were among those gaining honorary degrees from Oxford University yesterday.

The procession to the Sheldonian for the honorary degrees ceremony

Seven distinguished men and women received awards from university chancellor Lord Jenkins of Hillhead at the annual degree ceremony, Encaenia.

Dressed in full regalia, the recipients joined a procession to the Sheldonian Theatre where Public Orator Prof Jasper Griffin introduced them with witty speeches in Latin.

Actor Paul Scofield, one of the greatest actors of his generation, who won an Oscar in 1966 and the Shakespeare Prize in 1972, was made Doctor of Letters.

The same degree was presented to Prof Romila Thapar, Emeritus Professor of History at Jawaharlal Nehru University in India, and to Prof John Coetzee, the South African writer and academic who was the first person to win the Booker Prize twice. Dame Rosalyn Higgins became Doctor of Civil Law. She was Britain's counsel in the Lockerbie case and the first woman to be elected as a judge at the International Court of Justice.

Lord Rothschild, former chairman of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, was also made Doctor of Civil Law for his role in supporting the arts.

Nobel-prize winning physicist Dr Arno Penzias, and biologist Prof Shirley Tilghman, were made Doctors of Science.