FG Warns Honorary Doctorate Degree Holders Against Using ‘Dr’ In Official Correspondence
Nigerians who have received honorary doctorate degrees from universities in the country or abroad, have been warned against using the honorific ‘Dr’ in official correspondence.
The Federal Government also warned that the use of the honorific in question constitutes a misrepresentation of academic credentials, which will henceforth be treated as academic fraud with attendant legal and reputational consequences.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned that Minister of Education, Mr Tunji Alausa, who disclosed this at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday, added that the Federal Executive Council has approved a uniform policy for the award and use of honorary degrees by Nigerian universities.
‘The recent trend we’ve seen with the award of honorary degrees has revealed a growing abuse and politicization 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’ he said.
The minister added that under the new policy, recipients of honorary degrees may no longer put ‘Dr’ before their names but rather cite the full honorary designation 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.
Recipients shall not use the honorific ‘Dr’ 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’ he added.
The policy has also restricted the categories of honorary degrees that Nigerian universities can confer on people to four: Doctor of Laws (LL.D), Doctor of Letters (D.Lit), Doctor of Science (D.Sc), and Doctor of Humanities (D.Arts) while universities without active PhD-awarding programmes have been barred from conferring honorary degrees at all-Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08035023079, 08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com. Thank you
