1981
Lord Carrington (LLD)
Professor David Donnison (LLD)
Sarah Gilchrist (MA)
Robert Gittings (DLitt)
Jean Philippe Inebnit (MA)
Sir Alec Merrison (DSc)
Richard Morris (DSc)
Norah Smallwood (DLitt)
1982
Stephen Towers Anning (MPhil)
Willy Brandt (LLD)
Denis Parsons Burkitt
Sir Henry Chilver (DSc)
Jacqueline Du Pre (DMus)
Lord Derek Ezra (LLD)
Lord Hailsham (LLD)
Ronald Stanley Illingworth (DSc)
Leo Arthur Kaprio (LLD)
Emmanuel Le Roy LaDurie (DLitt)
Sir Rudolph Lyons (LLD)
1983
Imogen Clare Holst (DMus)
Viscount Tonypandy of Rhondda (LLD)
Robert Stewart Rowe (DLitt)
Roy Colin Strong (DLitt)
1984
Julian Bream (DMus)
Professor Brian Leonard Clarkson (DSc)
Richard Arthur Dalley (MSc)
Lord Hanson of Edgerton (LLD)
Paul Leonard Fox (LLD)
Sir Stanley George Hooker (DSc)
Syed Ali Mohammed Husain Khusro (LLD)
Emeritus Professor Owen Lattimore (DLitt)
Sir James Lighthill (DSc)
Sir Rex Richards (DSc)
R. E. Rowe (DEng)
Baroness Ryder (LLD)
Emeritus Professor William Walsh (LLD)
James Westoll (LLD)
1985
Douglas Gabb (MEng)
Emeritus Professor Irene Manton (DSc)
Lord Murray (LLD)
John Piper (DLitt)
Professor Robert Shackleton (DLitt)
Douglas Shortridge (LLD)
The Rt. Rev. Gordon Wheeler (DD)
Xie Xide (DSc)
1986
Professor Sir Geoffrey Allen (DSc)
The Reverend Professor William Owen Chadwick (DLitt)
Janusz Fibras (DLitt)
David Lloyd-Jones (DMus)
Sir David Lean (DLitt)
Jimmy Savile (LLD) – revoked 2012
Noel Stockdale (LLD)
1987
Jack Ashley (LLD)
Alan Ayckbourn (DLitt)
Sir Lawrence Byford (LLD)
Bernard Haitink (DMus)
Professor Stephen Hawking (DSc)
Professor Jerzy Kroh (DSc)
Yves Lesage (LLD)
Anthony J. Moyes (LLD)
Margaret Weston (DSc)
1988
Doreen J Bayley (MA)
Professor Richard Cobb (DLitt)
Geoffrey Hill (DLitt)
Baroness Masham of Ilton (LLD)
R. Roy McMurtry (LLD)
Patricia Ruanne (DLitt)
William P. Thackray (LLD)
Jean M. Tyrrell (LLD)
Professor Sir David Weatherall (DM)
1989
Joseph Dickinson (MSc)
Sir Joseph Gilbert (LLD)
H. Peter Jost (DEng)
Professor Heinrich Noth (DSc)
Tan Sri Rashdan(LLD)
Esther Simpson (LLD)
Casper Weinberger (DM)
1990
Alan Bennett (DLitt)
Barbara Taylor Bradford (DLitt)
Lt Cdr. Allan Crockatt (LDD)
Ray Cullingworth (MA)
Ralph Goodall (DEng)
Professor Yves Jeannin (DSc)
Sir Gustav Nossal (DM)
Colin Sampson (LLD)
Toru Takemitsu (DMus)
E. C. Zeeman (DSc)
1991
The Rt. Hon. Denis Healey (LLD)
Rev. Trevor Huddlestone (LLD)
Professor Walter Kunzel (DM)
Sir Gordon Linacre (LDD)
Janusz Onyszkiewicz (DSc)
Pat Solk (LLD)
Sir Peter Thompson (LLD)
1992
Sir Charles Frank (DSc)
Professor Stephen Jay Gould (DSc)
Raymond Head (LLD)
Sadruddin Aga-Khan (LLD)
Professor Dan McKenzie (DSc)
Cristopher Mowll (LLD)
Lord Putnam (DLitt)
Lord Merlyn Rees (LLD)
Diana Rigg (DLitt)
Fanny Waterman (DMus)
1993
Kenneth Cragg (DD)
Maurice Godet (DEng)
Anish Kapoor (DLitt)
Anne McLaren (DSc)
Simon Rattle (DMus)
Edward Thompson (DLitt)
James Walsh (LLD)
Arnold Ziff (LLD)
1994
Emeka Anyaoaku (LLD)
Margaret Atwood (DLitt)
Baroness Dunn (LLD)
Sam Edwards (DSc)
Gordon Higginson (LLD)
Raymond Seitz (LLD)
Cecil Thompson (MA)
Victor Watson (LLD)
1995
Alan Bowness (DLitt)
Stuart Hall (DLitt)
John Houghton (DSc)
Tom Jackson (LLD)
Mark Knopfler (DMus)
Hans Kornberg (DSc)
Lin Ma (LLD)
Jean Muir (DLitt)
Manmohan Singh (LLD)
Lord Justice Taylor (LLD)
Chad Varah (LLD)
1996
James Cronin (DSc)
Vigdis Finnbogadottir (LLD)
Ernest Hall (LLD)
David Jenkins (DD)
Jonathan Miller (DLitt)
Kathleen Raven (LDD)
Ismail Zawawi (DEng)
1997
Harold ‘Dickie’ Bird (LLD)
Ben Gill (DSc)
Peter Gray (DSc)
John Hougham (LLD)
Douglas Jefferson (DLitt)
Bill Kilgallon (LLD)
Gerald Di Piazza (DEng)
Derek Roberts (DSc)
Nayantara Saghal (DLitt)
Richard Sykes (DSc)
1999
Jeremy Paxman (LLD)
Murray Perahia (DMus)
The Rt. Hon. Jack Straw (LLD)
John Walker (DSc)
2000
Melvyn Bragg (DLitt)
Alan Bullock (DLitt)
Jocelyn Bell Burnell (DSc)
David Hockney (Dlitt)
Jude Kelly (DLitt)
Robert Ogden (LLD)
Alan Roberts (LLD)