Leading figures in the worlds of human rights, the arts, literature, academia and science are set to receive honorary degrees from the University of Oxford.

The title Doctor of Civil Law will be conferred on Dame Rosalyn Higgins, who made legal history by becoming the first woman to be elected as a judge of the International Court of Justice.

Also receiving the honour will be the Rt Hon Lord Rothschild, chairman of investment bank Five Arrows and RIT Capital Partners.

South African academic and Booker Prize winning author Prof John Coetzee, historian and author Professor Romila Thapar, Emeritus Professor of History at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India; and actor Paul Scofield will all receive Doctors of Letters.

Dr Arno Penzias, who won a Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation, and Prof Shirley Tilghman, the first woman president of Princeton University, both receive Doctorates of Science.

If the list is approved, the honours will be conferred at the university's annual honorary degree ceremony, known as Encaenia, in June.