2001
Dame Betty Boothroyd (LLD)
Susan Greenfield (DSc)
Seamus Heaney (DLitt)
Craig Jordan (DMed)
2002
Dame Judi Dench (DLitt)
Roderic Lyne (LLD)
Paul Nurse (DSc)
2003
Anthony Hunt (DEng)
Caryl Phillips (DLitt)
2004
Emeritus Professor Zygmunt Bauman
Emeritus Professor Maurice Beresford Jack Charlton (LLD)
Emeritus Professor Duncan Dowson Tony Harrison (DLitt)
Professor Dame Julia Higgins (DSc)
Sir Ian McKellen (DLitt)
Sir Kenneth Morrison (LLD)
Baroness Usha Prashar (LLD)
Professor David Rhodes (DEng)
Ngugi wa Thiong’o (DLitt)
Professor Sir Alan Wilson (LLD)
2005
Bill Bryson (DLitt)
Sir David Cox (DSc)
Andy Kershaw (DMus)
Dame Nancy Rothwell (DSc)
Marjorie Ziff (LLD)
2006
Lynne Brindley (DLitt)
Gurinda Chadha (DLitt)
Sara Courtneidge (DSc)
John Elderfield (DLitt)
Alexander Markham (DSc)
Arthur Stone (LLD)
2007
David Ansbro (LLD)
Dame Josephine Barstow (DMus)
Steve Bell (DLitt)
Dr Sydney Brenner (DM)
Arthur Cockcroft (LLD)
Anita Desai (DLitt)
Ruth Errington (LLD)
Al Garthwaite (LLD)
Mabel Parris (LLD)
Harold Pinter (DLitt)
Dr Piers Sellers (DSc)
Professor Janet Thornton (DSc)
Fiona Wood (DM)
Tony Wren (DEng)
2008
David Hessayon (DSc)
Sir Christopher Rose (LLD)
Martin Scicluna (LLD)
Polly Toynbee (LLD)
Mark Byford (LLD)
Albert Fert (DSc)
Baroness Flather (LLD)
2009
His Excellency Sayyid Saud bin Ibrahim Al-Busaidi (LLD)
His Excellency Yahya bin Saud bin Mansoor Al-Sulaimi (LLD)
Nicola Brewer (LLD)
Malcolm Chaikin (DSc)
Bekele Geleta (LLD)
Simon Mason(LLD)
Sunil Bharti Mittal (LLD)
Richard Mantle (DMus)
Michael Nyman (DMus)
Lord Oxburgh of Liverpool (DSc)
Peter Robinson (DLitt)
2010
Lesley Dixon (LLD)
Angel Gurria (LLD)
Elaine Oran (DSc)
Ingrid Roscoe (LLD)
Sir Stuart Rose (LLD)
John Sentamu (LLD)
John Simpson (LLD)
Alan Yentob (LLD)
2011
Professor David Stuart (DSc)
Corinne Bailey Rae (DMus)
Jonathan Wild (LLD)
Professor Dame Sally Davies (DM)
Sir Peter Blake (DMus)
Dr Keith Howard (LLD)
2012
Baroness Onora O’Neill (LLD)
Eliza Manningham-Buller (LLD)
Keir Starmer QC (LLD)
Sir Ian Kershaw (DLitt)
2013
Alistair Brownlee (LLD)
Jonathan Brownlee (LLD)
Claire Cashmore (LLD)
Stephanie Flanders (DLitt)
Dr Samuel Kargbo (DSc)
Linda Pollard (LLD)
Professor Susan Solomon (DSc)
Martin Wainwright (DLitt)
2014
Sir Patrick Stewart (DLitt)
Sir Andras Schiff (DMus)
Professor Jane Francis (DSc)
Lord John Dyson (LLD)
Professor Michael Arthur (LLD)
2015
Margaret Jull Costa (DLitt)
Professor Howard Morris (DSc)
Professor Simon Armitage (DLitt)
Michelle Pinggera (LLD)
Arthur France (LLD)
Professor Dame Ann Dowling (DSc)
Professor Sir John Tooke (DSc)
Sir David Baulcombe (DSc)
Nicola Adams (LLD)
Sir Peter Hendy (LLD)
2016
Professor Athene Donald (DSc)
Professor John Fisher (DSc)
Wayne McGregor (DLitt)
Anne-Marie Hutchinson (LLD)
Professor Steven Jackson (DSc)
Professor Vivien Jones (DLitt)
Peter Morgan (DLitt)
Professor Isobel Pollock-Hulf (DSc)
Dame Julia Slingo (DSc)
Sir Chris Snowden (DSc)
John Stoddart-Scott (LLD)
Andrea Sutcliffe (DSc)
2017
Dr Malcolm Brown (LLD)
Grace Clough (LLD)
Professor John Hardy (DSc)
Barry Cryer (DLitt)
Richard Farnes (DMus)
Lady Nicola Mendelsohn (LLD)
Helen Rappaport (DLitt)
Professor Martin Rees (Baron Rees of Ludlow) (DSc)
Professor Paul Workman (DSc)
Professor Anne Chamberlain (DSc)
Dr Karen Darke (LLD)
Colin Low (Baron Low of Dalston) (LLD)
Dr Andrew Shovlin (DSc Eng)
2018
Kenton Cool (LLD)
Professor Mary Fowler (DSc)
Peter Gibbs (LLD)
Professor Gabriele Hegerl (DSc)
Professor Alice Roberts (DSc)
Jane Rumble (DSc)
Professor Dame Clare Lucy Marx (DM)
Professor Wendy Burn (DM)
David Adetayo Olusoga (DLitt)
Professor Iain William Mattaj (DSc)
Professor Leslie Gabriel Valiant (DSc Eng)
The Reverend Christopher Senyonjo (LLD)
Professor Lord (Robert) Mair (DSc Eng)
Dame Anne Elizabeth Owers (LLD)
Lang Lang (DMus)