FORMER BBC boss Greg Dyke added a new string to his bow yesterday - when he was installed as Chancellor of York University.

Mr Dyke, a former student at the university, took on the role as its formal head at a ceremony on the Heslington campus.

His duties will include conferring degrees, and chairing the university's court. He will also chair the development board.

"I feel privileged to become chancellor of this wonderful university," he said.

"The three years I spent here as a mature student in the early 70s were amongst the most enjoyable, exciting and intellectually rewarding of my life."

Mr Dyke is the fifth chancellor in the university's 41-year history. Yesterday, he conferred honorary degrees on writer and broadcaster Lord Bragg, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality Trevor Phillips, Helen Boaden, director of news at the BBC, and Lord May, president of the Royal Society and a former chief scientific advisor to the Government.