Breaking: FG Bans “Dr” Title For Honorary Degree Holders
The Federal Government has outlawed the use of the “Dr” prefix by recipients of honorary degrees in any official, academic, or professional setting, warning that such misrepresentation will now be treated as academic fraud with legal and reputational consequences.
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, announced the new policy on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while briefing State House correspondents on Federal Executive Council approvals from the April 30 cabinet meeting that had not been previously disclosed. He appeared alongside the Minister of State for Education, Professor Suwaiba Ahmad.
Alausa said the FEC approved a uniform policy for the award and use of honorary degrees by Nigerian universities, designed to end what he called decades of indiscriminate conferral for political patronage and financial gain.
“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,” the minister stated.
Under the new policy, recipients may no longer prefix “Dr” to their names. Instead, they must cite the full honorary designation after their name. Alausa offered examples: “Chief Louis Clark, D.Lit. (Doctor of Literature, Honoris Causa)” or “Mrs Miriam Adamu, LL.D. Hons.”
“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,” Alausa said.
The policy restricts the types of honorary degrees Nigerian universities can confer to four: Doctor of Laws (LL.D), Doctor of Letters (D.Lit), Doctor of Science (D.Sc), and Doctor of Humanities (D.Arts). It further bars universities without active PhD awarding programmes from conferring honorary degrees at all, a move Alausa said was aimed at addressing the proliferation of newer institutions awarding honorary doctorates despite being less than five years old and lacking postgraduate research programmes.
The minister noted that all honorary degrees must carry the words “honorary” or “Honoris Causa” on the award certificate and in all references.
For over a decade, concerns over the commercialisation and politicisation of honorary degrees have been raised within Nigeria’s academic community. In 2012, the Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities attempted to address the challenge through the Keffi Declaration, which outlined guiding principles for awarding honorary degrees. However, Alausa said the declaration lacked legal or executive backing and was largely ignored.
“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 explained.
The Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission will issue a circular to all vice chancellors, registrars, and governing councils. Alausa said convocation programmes will be monitored for compliance, and the government will collaborate with the media to discourage improper attribution of academic titles to honorary recipients. The ministry will also publish an annual list of legitimate honorary degree recipients to protect the integrity of earned academic qualifications. He noted that the NUC has the statutory power to enforce the policy.