“Of necessity, your return here is a public event, observed by many eyes,” said Professor Richard Jenkyns, who welcomed her return to the university in Latin, adding that the award ceremonies now had its largest audience in the university’s history.

Suu Kyi received an honorary doctorate in civil law at a commencement ceremony in Oxford's Sheldonian Theatre that was broadcast live across Britain. On Thursday, she will speak to a joint session of the British Parliament.

“Today, many strands of my life have come together,” she told the university audience. “The years that I spent as a student at St. Hugh's, the years I spent at Park Town as a wife and mother, the years I spent under house arrest, when my university, the University of Oxford, stood up and spoke up for me.”

She said she would not be the person she is had it not been for her students days at the university in the 1960s, where she studied politics, philosophy and economics. Later she lived in Oxford in the 70s with her husband and two sons.

“The most important thing for me about Oxford was not what I learnt there in terms of set texts and set books we had to read,” she said. “But in terms of a respect for the best in human civilization ... the fact that in Oxford I had learned to respect all that is the best in human civilization helped me to cope with what was not quite the best.”

Suu Kyi repeated her concerns about Burma’s recent reforms toward democracy, saying again that a “healthy skepticism” is needed, because the road ahead is unknown and it is likely not to be smooth.

“Too many people are expecting too much from Burma at this moment,” she said. “They think that the road where we are standing is like one of those highways on which I traveled from London to Oxford and almost got carsick.”

Jenkyns, the university's orator, also acknowledged the difficulties that lie ahead for Burma, in his remarks before her speech.

“Sitting in this theater, we are conscious that we are also spectators of a drama played out in the theater of nations, one whose ending is as yet unsure,” he said. “And so for now we wait and hope and pray.”

Suu Kyi praised the education she received at Oxford, and she appealed for a rebirth of Burma’s education system, which has been “shattered” under decades of military rule. She asked that Oxford University might help in the return of Burma’s universities to world standards.