An honorary doctorate is to be awarded to Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi by the University of Johannesburg's humanities faculty, it said on Thursday.
Executive dean Professor Rory Ryan said that Suu Kyi represented the university's principles.
These included its respect for diversity and human dignity, and its call for academic freedom and accountability, he said.
Suu Kyi, a world-renowned advocate for human rights, was placed under house arrest in 1989.
The military offered to release her if she would agree to leave Burma, which has been renamed by the military junta as the Democratic Republic of Myanmar, but she refused.
She has spent 15 of the last 21 years under house arrest.
In 1990 she led National League for Democracy to win the election, but the military refused to recognise the party.
In March 2010 power was handed over to a nominally civilian government and Suu Kyi was released.
The university said it would award her a doctor litterarum et philosophiae (honoris causa) during a graduation ceremony in October. -
Sapa