BENEDICT Cumberbatch, Emma Watson and Oxfordshire's police chief have been made visiting fellows at an Oxford college.

The British actors and Francis Habgood, Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, were among 11 appointments today announced by Lady Margaret Hall in what will be seen as an unusual break from convention.

Only one of the new visiting fellows is an academic, with others including a High Court judge, an artist, a composer, a surgeon, the lead singer of the Pet Shop Boys and former Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman.

College principal Alan Rusbridger, the former editor of the Guardian who took up his post last October, said he hoped they would visit, eat with students and staff and join in with debates.

Their appointments will last for three years.

Mr Rusbridger said: "They are people drawn from a variety of backgrounds, callings and professions and we want them to form a bridge between our own academic community and the worlds they inhabit and represent.

"One or two have already come up with other ideas for how they might use their relationship with LMH to develop other projects and thinking."

He added that bringing in non-academics was not "entirely new", pointing to Lord Nuffield's desire to give fellowships to people from different institutions when founding his own college.

"We canvassed names from our governing body, of people of distinction whom we admired and whom we felt could add to the intellectual and cultural life of LMH", Mr Rusbridger said.

"Some of the names we announce today did not go to university, one left school at 16.

"We think we can learn much from them – and we hope they treasure their time with us."

The full list of appointments was: 

Malorie Blackman (former Children's Laureate), Benedict Cumberbatch (actor), Francis Habgood (Chief Constable, Thames Valley Police), Emma Watson (actor and campaigner), Sir Rabinder Singh QC (High Court Judge), Cornelia Parker (artist), Jennifer Rohn (scientist and novelist), Mark Simpson (composer and clarinetist), Dr Henry Marsh (neurosurgeon and author), Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys lead singer) and Beeban Kidron (film director).