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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Culture & Society

FG bans ‘Dr’ prefix for honorary degree holders, flags fraud

From The Punch · (4m ago) English Critical tone

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

TLDR

  • The Nigerian Federal Government has banned recipients of honorary degrees from using the prefix "Dr."
  • This move aims to curb the misuse of honorary degrees for political patronage and financial gain, treating such usage as academic fraud.
  • New regulations restrict honorary degrees to four types and require recipients to cite the full designation after their name.

The Federal Government has taken a decisive step to restore integrity to academic titles by prohibiting the use of the "Dr." prefix by holders of honorary degrees. This policy, announced by the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, targets the long-standing issue of honorary degrees being conferred for political patronage and financial gain, effectively turning them into a form of academic fraud.

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

— Tunji AlausaMinister of Education, explaining the rationale behind the new policy on honorary degrees.

Under the new directive, individuals conferred with honorary degrees must now cite the full designation after their name, such as "D.Lit. (Doctor of Literature, Honoris Causa)" or "LL.D. Hons." This format clearly distinguishes honorary awards from earned academic credentials, preventing misrepresentation. The government's stance is firm: any attempt to prefix "Dr." will be treated as academic fraud, carrying significant legal and reputational consequences.

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.

— Tunji AlausaMinister of Education, detailing the abuses the new policy seeks to address.

Furthermore, the policy restricts Nigerian universities to conferring only four types of honorary degrees: Doctor of Laws (LL.D), Doctor of Letters (D.Lit), Doctor of Science (D.Sc), and Doctor of Humanities (D.Arts). Universities without active PhD-awarding programs are also barred from conferring honorary doctorates. This measure aims to address the proliferation of degrees from institutions with questionable academic standing and to reinforce the value and credibility of higher education in Nigeria.

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.

— Tunji AlausaMinister of Education, outlining the new rule and its consequences.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by The Punch in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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