Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan will join the roster of Yale University's Chubb Fellows, one of the Ivy League institution's highest honours, April 12 for promoting human ideals through art.

Through his films and his philanthropy Khan has been among his generation's most important examples of the power of art to promote higher human ideals and aspirations, the Chubb Fellowship noted.

Chubb Fellowship roster has included heads of states, Nobel Prize winners, and leaders from every area of human endeavour who have inspired Yale students to see service to the public good as the highest calling to which a global citizen can aspire.

Former Chubb Fellows include Presidents George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter; authors Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes and Toni Morrison; filmmaker Sofia Coppola; architect Frank Gehry; choreographer Mikhail Baryshnikov; and journalist Walter Cronkite.

Established in 1936, through the generosity of Hendon Chubb (Yale College Class of 1895), the programme is based in Timothy Dwight College, one of Yale's residential colleges. Each year three or four distinguished men and women have been appointed as visiting Chubb Fellows.

Chubb Fellows spend their time at Yale in close, informal contact with students and deliver a public lecture.

Khan has acted in over seventy Hindi films. He has won fourteen Filmfare Awards from thirty nominations for his work in Indian films. Eleven of the films he has acted in have accumulated worldwide gross earnings of over $1 billion dollars.

As part of his visit, Khan will also speak to the Yale community and the general public at an event April 12.