Edinburgh University will decide within the next few weeks whether to strip controversial Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe of his honorary degree because of his poor human rights record.

At a meeting of the University of Edinburgh Court yesterday, members were updated on the steps being taken by the university senate to examine the honorary degree given to Mugabe in 1982.

Honorary degrees are awarded by the senate, the university's supreme academic body, on the recommendation of the honorary degrees committee for either outstanding academic achievement or in recognition of outstanding service or contribution to society or to the university.

After taking legal advice, the senate has established that under the Universities (Scotland) Acts it does have the power to withdraw honorary degrees. It has also agreed that it should be willing to consider doing so in cases where substantial new information comes to hand, which, for good reason, was not available at that time.

Calls to strip Mugabe of his degree are growing following the recent beatings of opposition politicians in Zimbabwe and after farms were taken away from families who had lived on them for generations. Such moves are all part of Mugabe's attempts to tighten his control in a country where inflation is spiralling out of control and there are food shortages.

An Edinburgh University spokesman said: "The University Court was informed that a small group of senior academic staff has now been set up to examine this issue further in relation to Robert Mugabe's honorary degree.

"This group will look specifically at the issue of whether there are or are not grounds for the withdrawal of the honorary degree and advise the honorary degrees committee - and through that body the senate itself - accordingly."