These well-known visitors are among more than 270 former college residents who will gather at New Zealand's oldest university residential college.
They are coming not only from throughout New Zealand but also from around the world
to attend the three-day celebrations.
Nine former college wardens will also attend.
College warden Ashley Day said the big reunion was of ''huge'' significance for the college, which was a ''very, very special place'', with many ''old traditions''.
Former college residents had arrived seeking knowledge but, ''because of our close-knit community, gained life-long friendships'', Mr Day said.
Celebrations will start tomorrow afternoon with a golf tournament, after which guests will be welcomed on to the college's Castle St premises by current college students performing Selwyn's waiata and haka.
Dr Kirk will speak at an evening cocktail gathering, and Mr English will be guest speaker at a jubilee dinner at the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum on Saturday.
Mr English was a college resident in the early 1980s, and his brother Connor and four of Mr English's children have also been Selwyn residents.
The master of ceremonies on Saturday will be a High Court judge, Justice Simon Moore, who was a Selwyn resident (1972-73).
Saturday morning tours of the university campus will be followed by lunch at the university Staff Club, and a cricket match between current and former college students.
On Sunday a new 15-bed apartment facility near the college will be blessed by former college warden, the Most Reverend Archbishop Philip Richardson, and the Anglican Bishop of Dunedin, Steven Benford.
The facility will be named Fitchett House, honouring the former Dean the Very Reverend Alfred Robertson Fitchett (1836-1929), and recognising the Fitchett family's long association with the college.
