SEVEN national and international figures from the world of business, education, health and comedy will recognised with honorary degrees at the University of Bradford’s graduation ceremonies next week.

Ceremonies take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the university Great Hall, where Chancellor Kate Swann and Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Cantor will present the honorary degrees, as well as degrees to hundreds of students.

Those getting honorary degrees include comedian Francesca Martinez, who will be made a Doctor of the University. Also an actor and author, Miss Martinez has turned her experiences of living with mild cerebral palsy, or being a bit ‘wobbly’ as she describes it, into award-winning comedy.

She uses her public profile to raise issues about disability and human rights.

Kevin Gaskell, a graduate of the university, is a former managing director of Porsche UK and BMW UK who went on to found technology company epyx Limited. He has walked to both the North and South Poles to raise funds for cancer research, and will be named Doctor of the University.

Paul Donovan, CEO of Odeon cinemas, is also becoming a Doctor of the University.

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, who was involved in Bangladesh’s war of independence and founded development organisation BRAC will be named Doctor of Education.

Knighted in recognition of his services to reducing poverty, he has been named in Fortune Magazine’s List of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.

Dame Stephanie Shirley, philanthropist and the first woman President of the British Computer Society, becomes a Doctor of Science.

Top mathematician Professor Robin Wilson, son of the former Prime Minister and first chancellor of the University of Bradford, Harold Wilson, will receive a Doctorate of Education.

And Cecilia Anim, who trained as a midwife in Ghana before moving to the UK and qualifying as a nurse, eventually becoming President of the Royal College of Nursing, will become a Doctor of Health at the university.

Meanwhile, a professor from the university will receive an honorary degree from a Leeds university for his contribution to peace studies and international security.

Global security consultant to Oxford Research Group and Professor of Peace Studies, Paul Rogers, will get the Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Leeds Beckett University at a ceremony at the end of the month.

Prof Rogers has worked in the field of international security, arms control and political violence for more than 30 years, lectures at universities and defence colleges around the world and has written and edited 26 books.

His new book Irregular War: ISIS and the New Threats from the Margins was published last month.

Prof Rogers’ insight and experience means he has written monthly briefing papers for the Oxford Research Group on international security and the “war on terror” since October 2001.

In the 1960s he worked with the Haslemere Group, an early pressure group on trade and development issues, before embarking on an academic career first at Huddersfield and then at Bradford, where he is now professor of Peace Studies.

Leeds Beckett University Chancellor, Sir Bob Murray said: “Paul’s work on trends in international conflict, with a particular focus on the interactions of socio-economic divisions and environmental constraints, is of great importance and he is highly respected as both a consultant and academic.”