.JPG)
Anhonorary degree is anacademic degree for which auniversity (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by theLatin phraseshonoris causa ("for the sake of the honour") orad honorem ("to the honour"). The degree is typically adoctorate or, less commonly, amaster's degree, and may be awarded to someone who has no prior connection with the academic institution[1] or no previous postsecondary education. An example of identifying a recipient of this award is as follows: Doctorate in Business Administration (Hon. Causa).
The degree is often conferred as a way of honouring a distinguished visitor's contributions to a specific field or to society in general.[2]
Honorary doctorates are purely titular degrees in that they confer no rights on the recipient and carry with them no formal academic qualification. As such, it is always expected that such degrees be listed in one'scurriculum vitae (CV) as anaward, and not in the education section.[3] With regard to the use of this honorific, the policies of institutions of higher education generally ask that recipients "refrain from adopting the misleading title"[4] and that a recipient of an honorary doctorate should restrict the use of thetitle "Dr" before their name to any engagement with the institution of higher education in question and not within the broader community.[5]
The practice dates back to theMiddle Ages, when for various reasons a university might be persuaded, or otherwise see fit, to grant exemption from some or all of the usual statutory requirements for the award of a degree. The earliest honorary degree on record was awarded toLionel Woodville in the late 1470s by theUniversity of Oxford.[6] He later becameBishop of Salisbury.[7]
In the late 16th century, the granting of honorary degrees became quite common, especially on the occasion of royal visits to Oxford orCambridge.[6] On the visit ofJames I to Oxford in 1605, for example, forty-three members of his retinue (fifteen of whom wereearls orbarons) received the degree ofMaster of Arts, and the Register of Convocation explicitly states that these were full degrees, carrying the usual privileges, such as voting rights inConvocation andCongregation.[6]
There were also some special cases: for example the criticJohn Ruskin suffered a physical or mental breakdown in 1840 and dropped out of theUniversity of Oxford. He returned to Oxford in 1842, and sat a single exam, and was awarded an honorary fourth-class degree.[8]
In the United States, theDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree was first conferred as an honorary degree atBucknell University in 1852; not until 1861 didYale University award the first earned Ph.D., becoming the first American university to do so.[9] Over one hundred institutions in the United States conferred honorary Ph.D. degrees in the 19th century, to more than seven hundred recipients.[10] However, the practice of awarding the Ph.D. as an honorary degree drew condemnation from organizations such as theAmerican Philological Association and theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science, and the board of regents of theUniversity of the State of New York prohibited any university in the state from conferring an honorary Ph.D. effective in 1897.[11] The number of honorary Ph.D. degrees awarded in the U.S. declined in the 20th century, and surveys by theUnited States Office of Education found none conferred in 1940 or later years.[12] One of the last known recipients of an honorary Ph.D. was singerBing Crosby, fromGonzaga University in 1937.[12][13][14]
By 2001, about 21 U.S. states had begun allowing public schools to grant honoraryhigh school diplomas to military veterans under a program called "Operation Recognition".[15] In Ohio, it was unclear whether public schools had the legal authority to grant them until 12 July 2001, when GovernorBob Taft signed a bill allowing public school districts to grant them to honorably discharged veterans ofWorld War II.[16]Lakota East High School is believed to have awarded the first such diplomas to a group of 20 veterans in May of that year.[17]
Honorary degrees are usually awarded at regulargraduation ceremonies, at which the recipients are often invited to make a speech of acceptance before the assembledfaculty and graduates—an event which often forms the highlight of the ceremony. Generally, universities nominate several persons each year for honorary degrees; these nominations usually go through severalcommittees before receiving approval. Nominees 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.[18] On occasion, organisations have been awarded honorary doctorates.[19]
Honoris causa degrees are not considered of the same standing as substantive degrees earned by the standard academic processes of courses and original research, except perhaps where the recipient has demonstrated an appropriate level of academic scholarship that would ordinarily qualify him or her for the award of a substantive degree.[20] Recipients of honorary degrees typically wear the sameacademic dress as recipients of substantive degrees, although there are a few exceptions: honorary graduates at theUniversity of Cambridge wear the appropriate full-dress gown but not the hood, and those at theUniversity of St Andrews wear a blackcassock instead of the usual full-dress gown.
Anad eundem orjure officii degree is sometimes considered honorary, although these are only conferred on an individual who has already achieved a comparable qualification at another university or attained an office requiring the appropriate level of scholarship. Under certain circumstances, a degree may be conferred on an individual for both the nature of the office they hold and the completion of a dissertation. The "dissertation et jure dignitatis" is considered to be a full academic degree. Seebelow.
Althoughhigher doctorates such asDoctor of Science,Doctor of Letters, etc. are often awardedhonoris causa, in many countries (notably England and Scotland, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand) it is formally possible to earn such a degree as a substantive one.[21] 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.
TheArchbishop of Canterbury has the authority to award degrees. These "Lambeth degrees" are sometimes, erroneously, thought to be honorary; however the archbishops have for many centuries had the legal authority (originally as the representatives of thePope, later confirmed bya 1533 Act ofHenry VIII), to award degrees and regularly do so to people who have either passed an examination or are deemed to have satisfied the appropriate requirements.[22]
Between the two extremes of honouring celebrities and formally assessing a portfolio of research, some universities use honorary degrees to recognise achievements of intellectual rigour. Some institutes of higher education do not confer honorary degrees as a matter of policy—seebelow. Some learned societies award honorary fellowships in the same way as honorary degrees are awarded by universities, for similar reasons.
A typical example of university regulations is, "Honorary graduates may use the approved post-nominal letters. It is not customary, however, for recipients of an honorary doctorate to adopt the prefix 'Dr.'"[23] It is generally considered improper practice for an honorary doctor to use the formal title of "Doctor," regardless of the background circumstances for the award. Written communications where an honorary doctorate has been awarded may include the letters "h.c." after the award to indicate that status.
The recipient of an honorary degree may add the degree titlepostnominally, but it should[citation needed] always be made clear that the degree is honorary by adding "honorary" or "honoris causa" or "h.c." inparentheses after the degree title. In some countries, a person who holds an 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. For example, an honorary doctorate from theAuckland University of Technology takes the special titleHonD since it is now common in certain countries to use certain degrees, such as LLD or HonD, as purely honorary. Some universities, including theOpen University, grant Doctor of the University (DUniv) degrees to selected nominees, while awarding PhD or EdD degrees to those who have fulfilled the academic requirements.
Most American universities award the degrees of LLD (Doctor of Laws), LittD (Doctor of Letters), LHD (Doctor of Humane Letters), ScD (Doctor of Science), PedD (Doctor of Pedagogy) and DD (Doctor of Divinity) only as honorary degrees. American universities do not have the system of "higher doctorates" used in the UK and some other universities around the world.
Some universities and colleges have the custom of awarding a master's degree to every scholar appointed as a full professor, who had never earned a degree there. At the universities of Oxford,Dublin and Cambridge, many senior staff are granted the degree of Master of Arts after three years of service.[24][25]
In the United States, at Amherst, Wesleyan, and Yale, the AMad eundem degree is conferred upon those who rise to the rank offull professor. At Brown and Harvard the degrees are awarded to those faculty who are grantedtenure and the rank of associate professor, usually after approximately eight years of service to the university as an assistant professor or for a shorter amount of time for a professor with prior service at another university.
Similarly, ajure dignitatis degree is awarded to someone who has demonstrated eminence and scholarship by being appointed to a particular office. Thus, for example, a DD (Doctor of Divinity) might be conferred upon a bishop on the occasion of his consecration, or a judge createdLLD (Legum Doctor) orDCL (Doctor of Civil Law) upon his or her appointment to the judicial bench. These, also, are properly considered substantive rather than honorary degrees.
Some US universities such as theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),[26]Cornell University,[27]Stanford University,[28][29] andRice University,[30] do not award honorary degrees as a matter of policy. TheUniversity of Virginia (founded in 1819) was probably the first US university to explicitly have a policy of not awarding honorary degrees at the request of its founder,Thomas Jefferson.[26][31] In 1845,William Barton Rogers, then chairman of the faculty, vigorously defended this policy; in 1861, he founded MIT in Boston and continued this practice.[26][32] The University of Virginia does annually award Thomas Jefferson Medals in Architecture and in Law, as the highest honours accorded by that institution.[31][33]
The Stanford Alumni Association occasionally awards theDegree of Uncommon Man/Woman to individuals who have given "rare and exceptional service" to the university.[34] ThoughUCLA has imposed a moratorium on awarding honorary degrees, it honours notable people with the UCLA Medal instead.[35]St. John's College has not granted honorary degrees since 1936, but itsalumni association occasionally offers honorary membership to retiring faculty, staff, and other close associates of the college.[36]
Some universities and colleges have been accused of granting honorary degrees in exchange for large donations.[37] Honorary degree recipients, particularly those who have no prior academic qualifications, have sometimes been criticized if they insist on being called "Doctor" as a result of their award, as thehonorific may mislead the general public about their qualifications.
In 1985, as a deliberatesnub, the University of Oxford voted to refuseMargaret Thatcher an honorary degree in protest against her cuts in funding for higher education.[38] This award had previously been given to allprime ministers who had been educated at Oxford.
The Philosophy Faculty at Cambridge courted controversy among the academic community in March 1992, when three of its members posed a temporary veto against the awarding of an honorary doctorate toJacques Derrida;[39] they and other non-Cambridge proponents ofanalytic philosophy protested against the granting on the grounds that Derrida's work "did not conform with accepted measures of academic rigor." Although the university 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-Hegeliancontinental philosophical traditions (with which Derrida's work is more closely associated).
In 1996,Southampton College atLong Island University (now a campus ofStony Brook University) awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Amphibious Letters toMuppetKermit the Frog. Although some students objected to awarding a degree to a Muppet, Kermit delivered an enjoyable commencement address and the small college received considerable press coverage.[40] The degree was conferred in recognition of efforts in the area ofenvironmentalism. The university stated: "His theme song, 'It's Not Easy Bein' Green,' has become a rallying cry of the environmental movement. Kermit has used his celebrity to spread positive messages in public service announcements for theNational Wildlife Federation,National Park Service, the Better World Society, and others."[41]
The awarding of an honorary degree to political figures can prompt protests from faculty or students. In 2001,George W. Bush received an honorary degree fromYale University, where he had earned his bachelor's degree in history in 1968. Some students and faculty chose to boycott the university's 300thcommencement.[42]Andrew Card, who served as Bush'sChief of Staff from 2001 to 2006, ultimately chose not to speak when theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst awarded him an honorary degree in 2007, in response to protests from students and faculty at the commencement ceremonies.[43]
In 2005 at theUniversity of Western Ontario,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 asking the UWO to reverse its decision to honor Morgentaler.[44] 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).[45]
In 2007, protesters demanded that theUniversity of Edinburgh revoke an honorary degree awarded toZimbabwean leaderRobert Mugabe in 1984. The university subsequently revealed plans to review its honorary degree policy and strip certain figures of their honorary degrees who did not deserve them. When considering revoking the honorary degree of a political figure, such reasons ashuman rights abuse orpolitical corruption would be considered. As a result, it was announced that Mugabe had been stripped of his honorary degree. The university also planned to have a more rigorous selection procedure regarding potential recipients of honorary degrees, in an attempt to rectify the trend of awarding degrees to celebrities.[46] Students at theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst alsoasked the university to revoke the honorary degree that was awarded to Mugabe over twenty years ago, and on 12 June 2008 the trustees unanimously rescinded Robert Mugabe's honorary degree.[47][48]Michigan State University has also rescinded its honorary degree.[49]
In April 2009, Arizona State University's president,Michael M. Crow, refused to give an honorary degree to US PresidentBarack Obama for his lack of adequate qualifying achievements thus far.[50] Also, controversy[51] was ignited about Notre Dame awarding Obama an honorary degree, as the institution is Roman Catholic and Obama holdspro-choice views on abortion and supportsembryonic stem cell research.[52]
In February 2012,Rosmah Mansor, the wife of thePrime Minister of Malaysia,Najib Razak was controversially awarded an honorary doctorate by theCurtin University for "services to childhood education".[53] The university honored Rosmah for founding and driving the Permata early childhood centres in Malaysia although some alumni and students contended that the government-funded centres are "an abuse of taxpayers' money".[54]
Over 50 honorary degrees awarded toBill Cosby have beenrescinded due to allegations and lawsuits of sexual assault.[55][56][failed verification]
In December 2022, theSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago rescinded an honorary doctorate degree awarded to rapperKanye West aftera series of racist and antisemitic remarks made by West.[57]
By convention, recipients of honorary doctorates do not use the title "Dr" in general correspondence. Recipients are not addressed orally or in writing as "Dr" by other academic institutions – and not correctly addressed as "Dr" in their professional/personal life. They continue to be addressed orally and in writing with the form of address to which they entitled prior to receiving the honor. E.g., Mr./Ms./Mrs.[58][59] However, thissocial convention is not always scrupulously observed.[60] Notable people who have used the honorary prefix include:
[H]onorary degree recipients should not refer to themselves as "Doctor", nor should they use the title on business cards or in correspondence. However, the recipient is entitled to use the appropriate honorary abbreviation behind his or her name
Media related toHonoris causa at Wikimedia Commons| Distinctions (Lists) |
|    | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ceremonies and events | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Related organisations | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Related concepts | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
