“It has helped raise awareness in other parts of Britain and the world of what this place is really like.

“I know people who live down south that used to be quite disparaging about Liverpool.

“However, now they are asking me about it and can not believe all the amazing things it has to offer.

“They are now visiting the city and will continue to do so.

“You cannot change perceptions of 30 years or so overnight but there has been a huge effort to do that and things are changing.”

Sir Drummond Bone, knighted in June for services to higher education and regeneration in the North West, has been Vice-Chancellor of the university since 2002. He was President of Universities UK, the organisation that represents higher education, from 2005 to 2007 and has chaired the Liverpool Culture Company.

He was instrumental in establishing the Liverpool-Shanghai Partnership and also set up Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in China, one of only two such developments agreed by the Chinese authorities anywhere in the world.

He will step down from his position at the university in at the end of July but he says it will not be the end of his work in Liverpool: “It is a bit strange as I usually give out the honours but I am extremely flattered to be recognised by my colleagues.

“I have been with the university for six years, so it is the end of an era. However, this is not the end of my association with Liverpool, I am staying on until the end of the year for Capital of Culture and maybe for longer than that in other capacities.”

Today honours will go to the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and musician Elvis Costello.

On Friday philanthropist Professor David Price Evans will be recognised.