Aung San Suu Kyi To Get Honorary Doctorate From Oxford

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is to receive an honorary doctorate from Oxford University.

The advanced degree in civil law will be presented during the institution's annual Encaenia ceremony.
It is the first time Suu Kyi has visited Oxford for decades, where she lived during the 1980s with her late husband, Tibetan scholar Michael Aris, and their sons Alexander and Kim.

The pro-democracy campaigner who spent years under house arrest in Burma is to receive the honorary degree she was awarded by Oxford in April 1993. She has been unable to receive it in person until now.


Ms Suu Kyi is expected to address the university during a ceremony that is conducted in Latin.
Oxford University vice-chancellor Professor Andrew Hamilton says the university is "delighted" that Ms Suu Kyi is finally able to return to the institution.

Suu Kyi is in the middle of a four-day visit to the UK, the first time she has ventured outside of Burma in 24 years.

She read philosophy, politics and economics at St Hugh's College between 1964 and 1967. After leaving university she worked in New York and Bhutan before settling in Oxford with her husband.
In July 1989, around a year after her return to Burma to care for her mother, Ms Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest by the military which feared her influence, where she remained for much of the next 20 years.

She was finally released in November 2010.
Encaenia is Oxford's annual ceremony at which honorary degrees are conferred. Among others to receive awards are Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller, former director general of the security services, and David Cornwell, otherwise known as the author John le Carre.

On Tuesday Suu Kyi has spoken of the strength she drew from her supporters around the world in standing up to the Burmese military junta as she visited two London institutions.