Breaking: FG bans honorary degree holders from using ‘Dr’ title

by · The Eagle Online

The Federal Government has banned recipients of honorary degrees from using the title “Dr” before their names in official, academic and professional settings.

The government said the practice amounts to misrepresentation of academic qualifications and will now be treated as academic fraud with legal and reputational consequences.

Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, announced the decision on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while briefing State House correspondents alongside the Minister of State for Education, Prof Suwaiba Ahmad.

Alausa said the Federal Executive Council approved a new uniform policy regulating the award and use of honorary degrees by Nigerian universities.

According to him, the policy is aimed at ending years of abuse, political patronage and financial influence tied to honorary doctorate awards.

Alausa said: “The recent trend we’ve seen with the award of honorary degrees has revealed a growing abuse and politicisation of this academic privilege.

“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 rules, honorary degree recipients must now attach the honorary designation after their names instead of using the “Dr” prefix.

Giving examples, the minister said: “For instance, you can use Chief Louis Clark, D.Lit. (Doctor of Literature, Honoris Causa)” or “Mrs Miriam Adamu, LL.D. Hons.”

He said the format makes it clear that the award is honorary and not an earned academic qualification.

Alausa said: “Recipients shall not prefix doctor to their names in official, academic or professional usage.

“Misrepresentation of honorary degrees as earned academic credentials shall be considered academic fraud and subject to legal and reputational consequences.”

The new policy limits honorary degrees Nigerian universities can award to four categories — Doctor of Laws (LL.D), Doctor of Letters (D.Lit), Doctor of Science (D.Sc) and Doctor of Humanities (D.Arts).

The government also barred universities without active PhD-awarding programmes from conferring honorary degrees.

Alausa said the move became necessary because some newer universities, including institutions less than five years old, had been awarding honorary doctorates despite lacking postgraduate research programmes.

He added that all honorary degree certificates must clearly carry the words “honorary” or “Honoris Causa.”

The minister recalled that the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities had attempted to regulate the practice through the 2012 Keffi Declaration, but the effort failed because it lacked legal backing.

He said: “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.”

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Alausa said the Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission would issue compliance circulars to vice-chancellors, registrars and governing councils.

He added that convocation programmes would also be monitored, while the government would work with the media to discourage improper use of academic titles by honorary award recipients.

The minister said the ministry would publish an annual list of legitimate honorary degree recipients, noting that the NUC has statutory powers to enforce the policy.

The latest directive reinforces stricter guidelines earlier introduced by the National Universities Commission regulating the award of honorary degrees, including a ban on recipients using the “Dr.” title.

The measures are aimed at curbing the abuse and indiscriminate conferment of honorary awards, which authorities said had continued to undermine the value and credibility of genuine academic distinctions.

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