Cambridge fellow: Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof Njabulo S Ndebele has been awarded an honorary fellowship by Churchill College.

Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Njabulo S Ndebele has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship from Churchill College, University of Cambridge, becoming the fifth recipient of this rare honour.

Honorary Fellows are Sir Winston Churchill (1968), Lady Mary Soames (1983), Maersk McKinney Møller (1991) and Sir John Bertrand Gurdon (2007).

Ndebele visited Cambridge, his alma mater, earlier this month, to deliver a talk to mark his Honorary Fellowship.

He was the first recipient of the South African Bursary at Churchill College and graduated with a Master of Arts in English Literature from Cambridge University in 1975.

Cambridge University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Law in 2006.

A statement from Cambridge reads: "Njabulo Ndebele is also a key figure in South African higher education. He has served as chair of the South African Universities' Vice-Chancellors' Association from 2002 to 2005 and served on the executive board of the Association of African Universities since 2001."