Image: PeskyMonkey, via Getty Images
Honorary degrees should “not be construed as academic qualifications”, national higher education council says
Malawi’s National Council for Higher Education has issued guidelines to stop the misuse of honorary academic titles in the country.
The council says it “has noted with concern the manner in which individuals are conferred with honorary degrees”, and that most of them subsequently use titles such as ‘doctor’ and ‘professor’.
This is not right, the council says in a press release published on 27 March. “Honorary degrees are ceremonial awards” and should “not be construed as academic qualifications”.
Recipients of honorary doctorates should not use the title ‘doctor’ or ask to be addressed by that title, the council writes. The same applies for honorary professorships, which are not given out in Malawi but are sometimes given to Malawians by foreign institutions.
Common problem
Malawi is not alone in recognising the problem. In October, South Africa’s Council on Higher Education published guidelines to bring “rigour, consistency and transparency” to the awarding and use of honorary degrees.
Dan Banik, a sustainable development professor at the University of Oslo in Norway, applauded Malawi’s move. He wrote on LinkedIn that the misuse of honorary degrees, especially by politicians, devalues the “hard work of genuine scholars” and erodes public trust in academic and political leaders.
Commenting on Banik’s post, scientists from other African countries including Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Kenya called for their countries’ higher education regulatory bodies to clamp down on honorary degree misuse too.
“We need a similar stance and guidance in Tanzania as well, but it won’t happen because the institution overseeing higher education and its affiliates are all subservient to politicians,” wrote Masudi Suleiman, a public health researcher affiliated with Tanzania’s Ifakara Health Institute.
View this article on Research Professional