From Victor Osula, Abuja
The Federal Government, on Wednesday, announced a comprehensive reform of the award and use of honorary degrees in Nigeria, introducing strict new regulations that prohibit recipients of such awards from using the “Dr” prefix in any official, academic or professional capacity.
The government also warned that any attempt to present honorary degrees as earned academic qualifications will henceforth be regarded as academic fraud, with attendant legal and reputational consequences.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, disclosed the policy at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while briefing State House correspondents on two Federal Executive Council (FEC) approvals not announced at the last cabinet meeting held on April 30.
Alausa, who was accompanied by the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, said the new policy was approved to address growing concerns over the abuse, politicisation and commercialisation of honorary degrees in Nigerian universities.
“The recent trend we’ve seen with the award of honorary degrees has revealed a growing abuse and politicisation of this academic privilege”, Alausa said.
He further noted that the awards were increasingly being used for non-academic purposes, adding: “We’ve seen awards being used for political patronage, for financial gain, as well as the conferral of awards on serving public officials, which, as part of the ethics of honorary degree awards, should not happen.”
Under the new framework, recipients of honorary degrees are no longer permitted to prefix “Dr” to their names in official, academic or professional usage.
Instead, they are required to reflect the honorary nature of the award after their names.
“For instance, you can use Chief Louis Clark, D.Lit. (Doctor of Literature, Honoris Causa) or Mrs Miriam Adamu, LL.D. Hons”, he explained.
Alausa stressed that the format was intended to clearly distinguish honorary awards from earned academic qualifications.
“Recipients shall not prefix doctor to their names in official, academic or professional usage”, he said, adding that “misrepresentation of honorary degrees as earned academic credentials shall be considered academic fraud and subject to legal and reputational consequences.”
The policy also restricts Nigerian universities to only four categories of honorary degrees: Doctor of Laws (LL.D), Doctor of Letters (D.Lit), Doctor of Science (D.Sc), and Doctor of Humanities (D.Arts).
It further mandates that all honorary degrees must carry the inscription “honorary” or “Honoris Causa” on certificates and in all official references.
In addition, the government barred universities without active PhD-awarding programmes from conferring honorary degrees, citing concerns over institutions that award such honours without adequate academic or research capacity.
Alausa explained that the measure was necessary to address what he described as the proliferation of honorary doctorates by relatively new universities.
“The restriction was aimed at addressing the proliferation of newer institutions that have been awarding honorary doctorates despite being less than five years old and lacking postgraduate research programmes”, he said.
He noted that previous voluntary guidelines, including the 2012 Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities’ Keffi Declaration, failed due to lack of legal backing.
“The association doesn’t have any legal backing to enforce anything. That is why we brought this to the Federal Executive Council, which now gives it legal and executive backing”, he stated.
The minister said the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission (NUC) will issue circulars to all vice-chancellors, registrars and governing councils for immediate compliance.
He added that convocation ceremonies will now be monitored for strict adherence, while government will collaborate with the media to discourage improper attribution of academic titles to honorary degree holders.
The ministry will also publish annually a list of legitimate honorary degree recipients to safeguard the integrity of earned academic qualifications.
“The ministry will also publish annually a list of legitimate honorary degree recipients to protect the integrity of earned academic qualifications”, Alausa said, noting that the NUC has statutory authority to enforce the policy nationwide.
