The University may confer the following degrees upon persons whose qualifications and record are approved for that purpose:

  • Doctor of Laws     (honoris causa)    LL.D.
  • Doctor of Letters   (honoris causa)    D.Litt.
  • Doctor of Science (honoris causa)    D.Sc.

Honorary degrees are awarded on the basis of the following criteria:

  1. Distinguished achievement in scholarship, the arts, or public service. Distinguished achievement is achievement widely recognized by peers in the field of endeavour and the public.
  2. Both the recipient and the University should be honoured in the granting of a degree honoris causa.

View current and past recipients:


View recipients on this page by year:

1970-1975

1975 Evangeline Flora Beckett
Peter Alfred Cain
Willard John Condo
Isydore Hlynka
Joseph William Lawson
Winona Grace MacInnis
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich
Maurice Frederick Strong
1974 Alan Butler
Norris Roy Crump
James Henry Gray
Paul Gerhardt Hiebert
Sol Kanee
Alexander McInnes Runciman
1973 Major John Leslie Charles
R.G.B. Dickson
Gerhard Herzberg
Wilhelmina Iwanowska
Alan Arnold Klass
Berbaruch Migicovsky
1972 Robertson Davies
The Honourable Justice Bora Laskin
Ara John Mooradian
Jean-Paul Riopelle
Ian Maclaren Thompson
1971 Hector Allard
William Archibald Cumming
Dr. Ferdinand Eckhardt
Dr. Donald Faison McIntyre
Mindel Cherniak Sheps
1970 David Courchene
Dr. Frederick Ernest Joseph Fry
Robert Beverley Malmo
Hugo Archibald McPherson
Governor General Daniel Roland Michener
Dr. Charles Roger Myers
Dr. William Edwin Ricker
Dr. H.H. Saunderson
Arnold Spohr
John Howe Sword

1950-1969

1969 Tom Lamb LL.D.
David Carlton Williams LL.D.
Joseph Henry Ellis D.Sc.
Sybil Frances Shack LL.D.
Frederick Ronald Hayes D.Sc.
Gunnar Svardson D.Sc.
The Right Honourable The Lord Gerald Austin Gardiner LL.D.
The Honourable Arthur Joseph Goldberg LL.D.
The Honourable Mr. Justice Emmett Matthew Hall LL.D.
George Percy Raymond Tallin LL.D.
His Eminence George Bernard Cardinal Flahiff LL.D.
Bimala Kalakicha LL.D.
George Taylor Richardson LL.D.
Donald Alexander Thompson LL.D.
1968 The Honourable Richard Spink Bowles LL.D.
Edward Churchill LL.D.
The Honourable Mr. Justice Samuel Freedman LL.D.
Douglas Frederick Stephen Chevrier LL.D.
Walter Harold Johnston D.Sc.
Jean d'Auteuil Richard LL.D.
John James Deutsch LL.D.
The Honourable Charles Rhodes Smith LL.D.
1967 James Alexander Corry D.Litt.
Margaret McTavish Konantz LL.D.
Herbert Marshall McLuhan D.Litt.
The Honourable John Whitney Pickersgill LL.D.
Allan Bronfman LL.D.
Filmer Hubble LL.D.
William Lewis Morton D.Litt.
William John Waines LL.D.
Jesse William Munroe DuMond D.Sc.
Josef Heinrich Elizabeth Mattauch D.Sc.
Most Reverend Maurice Baudoux LL.D.
Wilfred Cornett Lockhart LL.D.
Norman John MacMillan LL.D.
William Culver Riley LL.D.
John Everett Robbins LL.D.
The Honourable Duff Roblin LL.D.
Ian David Sinclair LL.D.
1966 John Hirsch D.Litt.
Right Reverend Alphonse-Marie Parent LL.D.
Carl Arthur Winkler D.Sc.
John Robert Weir D.Sc.
Donald McGregor Stephens LL.D.
Most Reverend Howard Hewlett Clark LL.D.
1965 Louis Sanford Goodman D.Sc.
James Merritt Harrison D.Sc.
The Honourable Mitchell William Sharp LL.D.
Frank Hawkins Underhill D.Litt.
John Waterhouse LL.D.
Louise Isabelle Willis LL.D.
1964 Ralph Johnson Bunche LL.D.
Herman Northrop Frye D.Litt.
Cyril Harold Goulden D.Sc.
Oliver Victor Jewitt LL.D.
Harold Rocke Robertson LL.D.
Sir William Mansfield Cooper LL.D.
Mary Aileen Garland LL.D.
Douglas Valentine LePan D.Litt.
Margaret Anchoretta Ormsby LL.D.
1963 Bruce Chown D.Sc
Maxwell Cohen LL.D.
William Thomas Easterbrook LL.D.
John Hatchkiss Stewart Reid LL.D.
Peter Duncan Curry LL.D.
Sir Basil Spence LL.D.
1962 Robert Alton Emerson LL.D.
Hans Albert Hochbaum LL.D.
Thorvaldur Johnson D.Sc.
Arthur Reginald Marsden Lower D.Litt.
John Barfoot MacDonald LL.D.
The Honourable Calvert Charlton Miller LL.D.
The Honourable Errick French Willis LL.D.
1961 Olive Freeman Diefenbaker LL.D.
Reverend The Honourable Thomas Clement Douglas LL.D.
Kenneth Wiffin Taylor LL.D.
Robert Broughton Bryce LL.D.
James Elliott Coyne LL.D.
Francis Reginald Scott LL.D.
Frederick Horsman Varley LL.D.
The Right Honourable William Grant LL.D.
Bernard Lasserre LL.D.
Donald McInnes LL.D.
Whitney North Seymour LL.D.
His Excellency Asgeir Asgeirsson LL.D.
1960 Harry Ernest Bulyea LL.D.
Harry Lyons LL.D.
Howard James Merkeley LL.D.
The Dowager Marchioness of Reading LL.D.
Margaret Gilpin Reid LL.D.
Arthur Sutherland Pigott Woodhouse D.Litt.
David Landsbrough Thomson D.Sc.
1959 John Hubert Craigie D.Sc.
John William Sanger D.Sc.
Charles Gordon Smith LL.D.
John Neilson Brown Crawford LL.D.
Eric Ross Arthur LL.D.
The Honourable Brook Claxton LL.D.
Milton Smith Osborne LL.D.
1958 Claude Thomas Bissell D.Litt.
Edward Annand Corbett LL.D.
Muriel Sprague Richardson LL.D.
The Honourable Joseph Thorarin Thorson LL.D.
Fred Todd Cadham LL.D.
Clarence Ebblewhite Smith LL.D.
Most Reverend Walter Foster Barfoot LL.D.
Alfred Erskine Hoskin LL.D.
The Very Reverend Gerald Francis Lahey LL.D.
The Most Reverend Philip Frances Pocock LL.D.
John Charles Boileau Grant D.Sc.
Frank Burton Walsh D.Sc.
Maxwell Meyer Wintrobe D.Sc.
1957 Robert Macdonald Hardy D.Sc.
Charles Sidney Clapp Landon LL.D.
William Lloyd Garrison Williams LL.D.
Henry Smith Wingate LL.D.
Donald Grant Creighton D.Litt.
Watson Kirkconnell D.Litt.
Lionel Edmund Balding LL.D.
Matthew Henry Garvin LL.D.
Gerald D. Timmons LL.D.
1956 George Donald West Cameron LL.D.
Adam Fisher Menzies LL.D.
Rosslyn Brough Mitchell LL.D.
James Reynolds Bell LL.D.
The Honourable Mr. Justice Paul Guyot DuVal LL.D.
Kenneth William Neatby D.Sc.
Isabel Maitland Stewart LL.D.
1955 The Honourable John Evans Adamson LL.D.
Frederick Walter Crawford LL.D.
William Creighton Graham D.Litt.
Wilder Graves Penfield D.Sc.
1954 Charles William Burns LL.D.
The Honourable Thomas Alexander Crerar LL.D.
Edgar William Richard Steacie D.Sc.
Healey Willan D.Litt.
Rene Bondoux LL.D.
The Right Honourable Sir David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe LL.D.
William James Jameson LL.D.
John Alexander MacAulay LL.D.
1953 Air Marshall Charles Roy Slemon LL.D.
The Honourable Esten Kenneth Williams LL.D.
The Honourable Humphrey Hume Wrong LL.D.
Chalmers Jack MacKenzie D.Sc.
Lawren Stewart Harris LL.D.
John Leslie Johnston LL.D.
William Kaye Lamb LL.D.
Hugh MacLennan D.Litt.
1952 Joseph Harris LL.D.
Thomas James Harrison LL.D.
Grace Gordon Hood LL.D.
James MacKerras MacDonnell LL.D.
David Scott Woods LL.D.
Robert Fletcher Argue LL.D.
The Honourable Douglas Lloyd Campbell LL.D.
Myrtle Rietta Conway LL.D.
James Anthony Cuddy LL.D.
Randolph Murray Fisher LL.D.
Lionel Lemoine Fitzgerald LL.D.
William Russell Leslie LL.D.
The Right Honourable Vincent Massey LL.D.
John McClary Pritchard LL.D.
Victor Sifton LL.D.
Arthur Sullivan LL.D.
Paul Henry Thorbjorn Thorlakson LL.D.
The Right Reverend Monsignor Ferdinand Vandry LL.D.
Henry Wilkes Wright LL.D.
1951 Jean Bruchesi D.Litt.
Roscoe Henry Channing LL.D.
Joseph Alderic Marion LL.D.
Andrew Stewart LL.D.
1950 Albert James Hazelgrove LL.D.
Albert Alexander Stoughton LL.D.
Arnold Danforth Patrick Heeney LL.D.
The Very Reverend Georges-Henri Levesque LL.D.
Ronald Edward Alfred Morton LL.D.
William James Parker LL.D.
Omond McKillop Solandt D.Sc.

1930-1949

1949 Eleanor Roosevelt LL.D.
Alvin Trotter Mathers LL.D.
Herbert McIntosh LL.D.
The Most Reverend Louis Ralph Sherman LL.D.
Walter Palmer Thompson D.Sc.
1948 William Boyd D.Sc.
Robert England LL.D.
Ewen Alexander McPherson LL.D.
Albert William Trueman LL.D.
Frank Cyril James LL.D.
Monseigneur Jean Olivier Maurault LL.D.
Robert Newton D.Sc.
The Reverend James Sutherland Thompson LL.D.
1947 Stuart Sinclair Garson LL.D.
Harold Adams Innis LL.D. 
Frank Leith Skinner LL.D. 
Trygve Lie LL.D. 
Henry Percy Armes LL.D. 
The Honourable Hjalmar August Bergman LL.D. 
Edward Phillip Fetherstonhaugh LL.D. 
Mary Speechly LL.D.
1946 Sir Charles Kt. Bachelor Goodeve D.Sc. 
Frederick Phillip Grove D.Litt.
Wesley McCurdy LL.D. 
Margaret McWilliams LL.D.
Llewellyn James Reycraft LL.D. 
Walter Alexander Riddell LL.D. 
1945 Roland Fairbairn McWilliams LL.D. 
Edwin John Pratt D.Litt.
Sidney Earle Smith LL.D. 
Thorbergur Thorvaldson D.Sc. 
de Gaspe Beaubien D.Sc.
1944 Brandur Jonsson Brandson LL.D. 
The Honourable Andrew Knox Dysart LL.D. 
Alfred Will Klieforth LL.D.
Arthur MacNamara LL.D.
Henry Eugene Sellers LL.D.
1943 Albert Ernest Archer LL.D. 
Walter Theodore Brown LL.D. 
Alexander Charles Campbell LL.D. 
The Honourable James Allison Glen LL.D.
The Honourable Percival Hector Gordon LL.D.
Jacob Harold Heinzelmann D.Litt.
William Frederick Osborne D.Litt.
Harry Martindale Speechly LL.D.
1942 Major-General The Honourable Sir William Glasgow LL.D.
William Iverach LL.D.
William Archibald MacKintosh LL.D.
Major-General The Honourable Percival John Montague LL.D.
John Patterson LL.D.
1941 Frans Eyso Henricus Groenman LL.D.
Otto Maass LL.D.
Albert Edward McKenzie LL.D.
1940 Edward Anderson LL.D.
John Norison Finlayson LL.D.
The Right Honourable Ernest Lapointe LL.D.
1939 None given this year
1938 Elmer Verner McCallum LL.D.
William Johnston Tupper LL.D.
Right Reverend Peter Bryce LL.D.
John Henry Riddell LL.D.
1937 Joseph Bernier LL.D.
Ephraim Herbert Coleman LL.D.
Alexander Joseph Douglas LL.D.
Charles William Gordon LL.D.
Henry Nesbitt MacNeill LL.D.
John William Matheson LL.D.
Vilhjalmur Stefansson LL.D.
John G. Sullivan LL.D.
William Tier LL.D.
Norman McLean Rogers LL.D.
1936 Charles Camsell LL.D.
William Sanford Evans LL.D.
John Lord Tweedsmuir Buchan LL.D.
1935 Archibald Brown Clark LL.D.
James Bertram Collip LL.D.
Ella Cora Hind LL.D.
The Honourable Louis St. Laurent LL.D.
1934 James Thomas Milton Anderson LL.D.
James Alexander MacLean LL.D.
1933 None given this year
1932 William John Black LL.D.
D'Alton Corry Coleman LL.D.
The Right Honourable Arthur Meighen LL.D.
1931 James Elliott LL.D.
Chief Justice James E. Prendergast LL.D.
W.J. Spence LL.D.
1930 None given this year

1911-1929

1929 Henry Mark Ami LL.D.
David Merrit Duncan LL.D.
Reverend Roderick George MacBeth LL.D.
Chester Martin LL.D.
Walter Charles Murray LL.D.
1928 Edgar S. Archibald LL.D.
Edwin Loftus LL.D.
John Alexander Machray LL.D.
Robert Charles Wallace LL.D.
1927 Right Reverend John George Anderson LL.D.
Reverend Henri Bourque LL.D.
The Honourable John Bracken LL.D.
The Honourable James Garfield Gardiner LL.D.
The Honourable Daniel Alexander MacDonald LL.D.
Most Reverend Samuel Pritchard Matheson LL.D.
The Honourable James McKay LL.D.
The Honourable Edward W. Montgomery LL.D.
David Alexander Stewart LL.D.
1926 John Wesley Dafoe LL.D.
Alexander McIntyre LL.D.
Isaac Pitblado LL.D.
1925 None given this year  
1924 Frank Allen LL.D.
Arthur Henry Reginald Buller LL.D.
Matthew Archibald Parker LL.D.
1923 None given this year  
1922 Reverend Andrew Browning Baird LL.D.
Reverend Joseph Blain LL.D.
Robert Fletcher LL.D.
Reverend Andrew Stewart LL.D.
1921 Spencer Argyle Bedford LL.D.
Robert Johnstone Blanchard LL.D.
Sir Robert Alexander Falconer LL.D.
1920 Reverend George Boyce LL.D.
Swale Vincent LL.D.
1919 Sir James Albert Manning Aikins LL.D.
James William Winthrop Spencer LL.D.
1918 None given this year  
1917 Victor Christian William Cavendish LL.D.
1916 None given this year  
1915 None given this year  
1914 Charles Napier Bell LL.D.
Canon Henry John Cody LL.D.
The Honourable Hugh Amos Robson LL.D.
1913 Reverend Alphonse Avila Cherrier LL.D.
Frank Fairchild Wesbrook LL.D.
1912 Reverend Robert Cuthbert Johnstone LL.D.
Daniel McIntyre LL.D.
1911 Sir Daniel Hunter McMillan LL.D.