Honorary degree

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For other degrees, see Academic degree. Not to be confused with an honours degree.

An honorary degree ^[1] (Latin: honoris causa ad gradum) is an academic degree awarded to an individual as a decoration, rather than as the result of matriculating and studying for several years. An honorary degree may be (and often is) conferred by an institution that the recipient never attended. The degree itself may be a bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree — the last being by far the most common. Usually the degree is conferred with great pomp and ceremony as a way of honoring a famous or distinguished visitor's valuable contribution to society. The university derives benefits by association with the person's status and so enhances its networking and publicity.

Introduction

Honorary degrees are usually awarded at regular graduation ceremonies, at which the recipients are often invited to make a speech of acceptance before the assembled faculty and graduates – an event which often forms the highlight of the ceremony. Generally universities nominate several persons each year for honorary degrees; these nominees usually go through several committees before receiving approval. Those who are nominated are generally not told until a formal approval and invitation are made; often it is perceived that the system is shrouded in secrecy, and occasionally seen as political and controversial – in recent years a trend lamented by many has been to award degrees to popular icons, such as politicians and actors, rather than to scientists and scholars.

In some sense, the term 'honorary degree' is a slight misnomer: honoris causa degrees (the term means 'for the sake of the honour') are real degrees, formally awarded by a university under the terms of its charter. They differ from 'earned' degrees only in that the university has chosen to waive the usual study, research, residence and examination requirements. In popular usage, however, this distinction has become blurred, and honoris causa degrees are often considered not to be of the same standing as substantive degrees, even when the recipient has demonstrated a level of eminence and scholarship which would be sufficient to formally earn such a degree.

An ad eundem or jure dignitatis degree is sometimes considered honorary, although they are only conferred on an individual who has already achieved a comparable qualification at another university or by attaining an office requiring the appropriate level of scholarship.

The first honorary degree was awarded to Lionel Woodville in the late 1470s by the University of Oxford. He later became Bishop of Salisbury.

It is worth mentioning the point that although higher doctorates such as DSc, DLitt, etc, are often awarded honoris causa, in many countries (notably the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand) it is possible formally to earn such a degree. This typically involves the submission of a portfolio of peer-refereed research, usually undertaken over a number of years, which has made a substantial contribution to the academic field in question. The university will appoint a panel of examiners who will consider the case and prepare a report recommending whether or not the degree be awarded. Usually, the applicant must have some strong formal connection with the university in question, for example full-time academic staff, or graduates of several years' standing.

Some universities, seeking to differentiate between substantive and honorary doctorates, have a degree (often DUniv, or 'Doctor of the University') which is used for these purposes, with the other higher doctorates reserved for formally-examined academic scholarship.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has the power to award degrees. These 'Lambeth degrees' are often, erroneously, thought to be honorary; however the Archbishop has for many centuries had the legal authority (originally as the representative of the Pope, later confirmed by a 1533 Act of Henry VIII), to award degrees, and regularly does so to individuals deemed to have satisfied the appropriate requirements in some way.

Between the two extremes of honoring celebrities and formally assessing a portfolio of research, many universities use honorary degrees to recognize achievements of intellectual rigour that are comparable to an earned degree.

Practical use

Recipients of an honorary doctorate do not normally adopt the title of "doctor", though it may be appropriate to use the title provided it was conferred based on some tangible and relevant achievement. In many countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, it is not considered correct for an honorary doctor to use the formal title of "doctor", regardless of the background circumstances for the award. One notable exception to the commonly accepted usage in the United States is Benjamin Franklin, who received an honorary doctorate from the University of St. Andrews in 1759 and the University of Oxford in 1762 for his scientific accomplishments. He thereafter referred to himself as "Doctor Franklin."

In the United Kingdom the author and lexicographer Dr Samuel Johnson, who had some years earlier been unable (due to financial considerations) to complete his undergraduate studies at Pembroke College, Oxford, was awarded the degree of Master of Arts by diploma in 1755, in recognition of his scholarly achievements. In 1765, Trinity College, Dublin awarded him the degree of Doctor of Laws, and in 1775 Oxford bestowed upon him the degree of Doctor of Civil Law by diploma. It is unclear how much these degrees count as "honorary", though, as they were bestowed in recognition of a specific, undoubtedly substantial and original scholarly work, and one that was arguably far more deserving than many other doctoral theses submitted at the time.

The recipient of an honorary degree may add the degree title postnominally, but it should always be made clear that the degree is honorary by adding "honorary" or "honoris causa" or "h.c." in parenthesis after the degree title. In many countries, one who holds a honorary doctorate may use the title "doctor" prenominally, abbreviated Dr.h.c. or Dr.(h.c.). Sometimes, they use "Hon" before the degree letters, for example, Hon DMus.

In recent years, some universities have adopted entirely separate postnominal titles for honorary degrees. This is in part due to the confusion that honorary degrees have caused. It is now common to use certain degrees, such as LL.D. or Hon.D., as purely honorary. For instance, an honorary doctor of the Auckland University of Technology takes the special title Hon.D. instead of the usual Ph.D. Some universities, including the Open University grant Doctorates of the University (D.Univ.) to selected nominees, while awarding Ph.D. or Ed.D. degrees to those who have fulfilled the academic requirements.

Many American universities award the LL.D. (Doctor of Laws), the Litt.D. (Doctor of Letters), the LH.D. (Doctor of Humane Letters), the Sci.D. (Doctor of Science), the Ped.D. (Doctor of Pedagogy) and the D.D. (Doctor of Divinity) only as honorary degrees. An earned degree in law would be the J.S.D. (Doctor of Juridical Science); earned degrees in the liberal arts, humanities, or sciences are generally the Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy); the Ed.D. (Doctor of Education) or Ph.D. are education degrees; and the Ph.D., Th.D. (Doctor of Theology), S.T.D. (Doctor of Sacred Theology) or D.Min. (Doctor of Ministry) are awarded in religion and theology depending on the particular program. American universities do not have the system of "higher doctorates" used in the UK and at other universities around the world. The earned Ph.D. is the highest formal academic degree offered in the United States.

Customary degrees (Ad eundem degrees)

Some universities and colleges also have the custom of awarding a master's degree to every scholar it appoints as a full professor who had never earned a degree there. At the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge many senior staff are granted the degree of Master of Arts after three years of service, and at Amherst College all tenured professors are awarded a Master of Arts degree at academic convocation in the autumn even though the school only offers an earned Bachelor of Arts degree (Amherst awards honorary doctorates at commencement in the spring to notable scholars and other special invitees).

These ad eundem degrees are earned degrees, not honorary, because they recognise formal learning.

Similarly a jure dignitatis degree is one awarded to someone who has demonstrated their eminence and scholarship by being appointed to a particular office. Thus, for example, a DD might be conferred upon a bishop on the occasion of their consecration, or a judge created LLD or DCL upon their appointment to the bench. These, also, are properly considered substantive rather than honorary degrees.

Controversy

Some universities and colleges have been accused of granting honorary degrees in exchange for large donations, as revealed in the Glasgow University Guardian. Honorary degree recipients, particularly those who have no academic qualifications, have sometimes been criticized if they insist on being called "Doctor" as a result of their award, as the honorific may mislead the general public about their qualifications.

The practice of awarding honorary degrees to celebrities has also been criticised. Detractors argue that such honorary degrees debase the value of a degree and are publicity stunts by the university in an attempt to obtain media attention by capitalizing on the popularity of a celebrity's name. Various honorary degree recipients have been criticised for not being meritorious.

The awarding of an honorary degree to political figures almost always prompt protests from faculty or students. In 2001, George W. Bush received an honorary degree from Yale University where he had earned his bachelor's degree in history in 1968. Some students and faculty chose to boycott the university's 300th commencement.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005 at the University of Western Ontario, Dr. Henry Morgentaler, a gynecologist involved in a legal case decriminalizing abortion in Canada (R. v. Morgentaler), was made an honorary Doctor of Laws. Over 12,000 signatures were acquired on http://www.uwoprotest.com/ asking the UWO to reverse its decision to honor Dr. Morgentaler. Several protest rallies were held, including one on the day the honorary degree was bestowed (a counter petition to support Morgentaler's degree gained 10,000 signatures^{[citation needed]}).

Few people object when an honorary degree is awarded to in a field that the awardee is noted for. McGill University's decision to grant musiciain Joni Mitchell an honorary Doctor of Music in 2004 was unopposed, although it was timed to coincide with a symposium about Mitchell's career. [1]

In 1996 Southampton College at Long Island University (now a campus of SUNY Stony Brook) awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Amphibious Letters to muppet Kermit the Frog. Although some students objected to awarding a degree to a puppet, Kermit delivered an enjoyable commencement address and the small college received considerable press coverage. [2]

Some universities, like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [3], Cornell University [4], and the University of Virginia [5], do not award honorary degrees. MIT does, however, on rare occasions award honorary professorships; Winston Churchill was so honored in 1949 and Salman Rushdie in 1993.

The Philosophy faculty at Cambridge courted controversy amongst the academic community in the early 1990s over its initial refusal to award an honorary doctorate to Jacques Derrida, on the grounds that his work did not conform with accepted measures of academic rigour. Although the faculty eventually passed the motion, the episode did more to draw attention to the continuing antipathy between the analytic (of which Cambridge's faculty is a leading exponent) and the post-Hegelian continental philosophical traditions (with which Derrida's work is more closely associated) rather than the official reasons given.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007, Edinburgh University revealed plans to review its honorary degree policy and strip certain figures of their honorary degrees who did not deserve them (the first on the list is likely to be Robert Mugabe). They also plan to have a more strict procedure and selection of potential recipiants of honorary degrees in an attempt to rectify the current trend of awarding degrees to celebrities.

Footnotes

1. ^ Although the spelling honorary is correct in all instances, such an award is an "honor" in the U.S. and usually an "honour" elsewhere; see spelling differences.

See also

• Freedom of the City
• Homage
• Category:Honorary doctoral degree holders

External link

• Sunday Times article about inappropriate honorary degrees
• Scotsman article about Edinburgh's plans to strip Mugabe of his honorary degree and review its honorary degree policy