A REVOLUTIONARY games designer and a human rights campaigner are amongst this year’s honorary doctorates at Bournemouth University (BU).

Ian Livingstone OBE is the brains behind many of the most popular board games and video games of the past 35 years.

He co-created the Games Workshop and the Fighting Fantasy Books and achieved worldwide success with the computer game Tomb Raider.

He presents masterclasses at BU’s media school and is a supporter of its prestigious National Centre for Computer Animation.

“I’m absolutely delighted – it’s great that people recognise the work that we are doing,” he told the Echo yesterday.

“The games industry is now the biggest entertainment industry in the word, worth $50billion a year.

“Most people think games are made overseas, they don’t recognise our history.

“It would be great to have more games studios in Bournemouth because all successful games companies have been part of ecosystems linked to universities.”

Mr Livingstone praised BU in a Government-commissioned report. “Its courses should be emulated around the country,” he said.

He is the Life President of Eidos Interactive, whose games include Championship Manager and Hitman. He will receive his doctorate tomorrow during graduation ceremonies at the BIC.

Human rights lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith founded the international charity Reprieve and has worked for many years in the USA on behalf of prisoners facing the death penalty.

He also worked for Guantanamo Bay prisoners and played a leading role in investigating allegations of torture and extraordinary rendition.

He moved to the village of Symondsbury, west of Bridport in 2005, near where his wife is from, and has given a talk to students at BU’s law school.

“I would be very glad to do more, because you have got to catch people while they are young,” he told the Echo. “We need more law students diverting their careers into working with powerless people.”

He receives his doctorate on Thursday morning.

Also receiving doctorates are BU’s head of education Dr Brian Astin, founding chancellor Baroness Cox of Queensbury, chief executive of Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Roger Browning, travel entrepreneur John Kent, and former BU chairman Alan Frost.