FORMER prime minister John Howard has been awarded an honorary doctorate for services to Australia and particularly his support of privately owned universities.
Mr Howard joined hundreds of fellow graduates at the Gold Coast's Bond University, where he was awarded the degree of Doctor of the University.
With his wife Janette looking on, he used the opportunity to tell the graduating class not to be pessimistic about the future.
He said despite recent economic instability, it had not changed the fundamental global shift to increased wealth achieved over the past 30 years.
"The world in 2009 is very different from the world in 2008 and indeed in 2004,'' he told the crowd.
"Nothing that has occurred over the last year and nothing that will occur over the months ahead can alter the fact that the last 30 years has seen a dramatic transformation for the better for millions of people around the world.''
He said the Asia Pacific region would soon have the most middle class citizens in the world.
Mr Howard, who refused to comment on the federal government's $42 billion stimulus package, told the students the government played a lesser roll in economics.
"They play a support role, a regulatory role, but fundamentally it is the judgment of individual men and women that generates the wealth of nations.''
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