Shami Chakrabarti, leading NRI human rights lawyer and director of prominent civil liberties group -- Liberty, has been appointed as the chancellor of Oxford Brookes University.

Chakrabarti takes over from Jon Snow, the well-known anchor of Channel 4 News.

While handing over his medal of office at a well attended ceremony, Snow told the audience that they would now witness first hand the 'extra-ordinary human dynamo that is Shami Chakrabarti'.

A lawyer and director of the campaigning organisation 'Liberty', Chakrabarti, said she admired the first chancellor of the university Helena Kennedy.

The new chancellor spoke movingly about universities as places of learning but also of freedom, quoting Eleanor Roosevelt's belief that 'human rights begin in small places close to home'.

She said that as a 'scruffy campaigner' she feels not qualified enough to take on her new role, but wanted 'universities to give people opportunities and hope they live up to them'.

The role is ceremonial, and the new Chancellor will give an annual lecture, preside over certain ceremonies, and act as an inspiration and ambassador for the University.