ST Albans city centre is awash with new graduates and their families this week as the University of Herts holds its annual awards ceremonies. They are taking place in the Abbey until Friday and among the new graduates will be the 16 recipients of honorary

ST Albans city centre is awash with new graduates and their families this week as the University of Herts holds its annual awards ceremonies.

They are taking place in the Abbey until Friday and among the new graduates will be the 16 recipients of honorary degrees.

Among those is Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco which has its head office in Cheshunt, Guardian journalist Jonathan Steele and Caroline Tapster, chief executive of the county council.

Over 4,300 graduates and their family and friends will be in the city centre this week for a series of ceremonies which are seen as being very beneficial to St Albans because of the number of people they bring in.

Philip Waters, secretary and registrar at the university, said: "For the university this is always a special time of year. People travel to St Albans from all over the world to take part in this celebration of academic success.

"To minimise the impact of extra traffic, we encourage our visitors to use public transport and are running a shuttle bus service from the Westminster Lodge car parks which we use as a park and ride for those who travel by car.