Mr Scarborough, a former miner, is famous for his unique images of everyday life in Yorkshire and painted a picture of the university to help celebrate its centenary in 2005.

The inspiration behind the hit film Calendar Girls, Angela Knowles, a former employee of the university's union of students,will also receive the award.

Mrs Knowles was the driving force behind the Rylstone and District Women´s Institute charity calendar, following her husband´s death from leukaemia. Since that time she and her friends have raised more than £1m for cancer research.

Ten other people will receive honorary awards at the ceremony, including Paul Collier, a former Sheffield schoolboy who is now Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford.

He will receive a Doctor of Letters degree in recognition of his work on global poverty.

Prof Sir David King, the Government´s former Chief Scientific Adviser, who gained widespread recognition for his handling of the foot-and-mouth crisis in 2001, will receive a Doctor of Science degree.

He will be joined by Prof Jim Feast, a graduate of the university and now president of the Royal Society of Chemistry, who has an international reputation for his work on polymers.