Honorary degree

An honorary degree is a degree awarded by a university or other academic institution to somebody who has not actually registered, studied, taken exams or graduated from that institution. The title in Latin is ‘honoris causa’, which means ‘as a mark of honour’. The awarding of an honorary degree is essentially symbolic, and can represent the recognition of a person’s contribution to society, or to a particular area of study or interest, or perhaps a charity.

The University of Alberta in the US gives the following reasons and rationale for awarding the honorary degree on its website:

“Honorary degrees are generally awarded for one of three reasons: To recognize extraordinary intellectual or artistic achievement, to honor service to the University and to the wider society; and to recognize men and women who might serve as examples to the institution's student body. An honorary degree, it is said, honors both the grantee and the spirit of the institution.”

http://www.registrar.ualberta.ca/ro.cfm?id=377
The awarding of honorary degrees in Great Britain originated in the middle ages, when universities first saw fit to award degrees to individuals without them having had to study or graduate at that university or institution. The first honorary degree officially on record was presented by Oxford University to Lionel Woodville in the late 15th century. Woodville was later become the Bishop of Salisbury.
The conferring of an honorary degree is usually beneficial for both parties, with the person who receives it benefiting from association with the institution, and the institution or university benefiting from association with the person upon which the honorary degree is bestowed. Often the recipient of the honorary degree is famous, so the university gains welcome publicity, whereas the recipients get to display all the trappings of a distinguished academic career without necessarily having undertaking one. This may be particularly satisfying for the recipient if they have never undertaken any further education.

Cambridge University has been awarding honorary degrees for five hundred years. It has awarded honorary degrees to, amongst others, Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and jazz musicians John Dankworth and Dame Cleo Laine. The awarding of the honorary degree to musicians has been more widespread in recent years. In 2004 the American Rock icon Bob Dylan, who already has an honorary degree from Princeton, accepted an honorary doctorate of music from St Andrews university. The University of Manchester recently awarded musical doctorates to the Bee Gees, and in 2002 Wolverhampton university awarded honorary degrees to the well-known glam-rock band Slade. Paul Macartney received an honorary degree from Yale university in America.

The awarding of the honorary degree in the US dates back three hundred years, to when . Harvard university presented an honorary degree in the year 1692 to Increase Mather, a Puritan preacher. The same university, Harvard, also awarded an honorary degree to Walt Disney in 1938.

It is not uncommon for writers, especially well-known ones, to receive an honorary degree. JK Rowling was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Edinburgh, and Bill Bryson was given an honorary degree by the University of Durham.

These days it seems to receive an honorary degree you need not have achieved anything even vaguely related to academia – they are often awarded to those involved in sport. Footballer Jack Charlton received an honorary degree from Leeds university in 2004, and Alex Ferguson, the manager of Manchester United, was jointly awarded an honorary degree in 1998 by Manchester Metropolitan university and UMIST.

Universities sometimes award honorary degrees to well-known local people; examples are the awarding of honorary fellowships by Liverpool John Moore’s university to well-known Liverpudlians Cilla Black and Sue Johnston, an actress known for starring in sitcom the Royle Family and Brookside.

Suggestions for recipients for honorary degrees will generally be considered by a council, committee or panel of examiners and may be put to the vote. The awarding of the honorary degree typically takes place alongside the awarding of normal degrees at a graduation ceremony. Typically the recipient will be invited to make a speech.

Although honorary degrees are often not seen as carrying the same weight as normal degrees, technically they are just as legitimate.
 The awarding of the honorary degree is not however without controversy. In the past, they have been awarded to politicians. An example is the awarding of an honorary degree to George W Bush in 2001 by Yale University in the United States. The awarding of honorary degrees of fellowships to political figures generally tends to be the subject of protests, largely from the student bodies of the awarding institutions.

There have also been calls for honorary degrees in the past to be revoked. One of the most well-known recent examples of this is the call to strip Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe of his honorary degree, awarded to him in 1984 by Edinburgh university, in light of what is widely considered to be Zimbabwe’s appalling record on human rights and, and history of political corruption. The campaign to have Mugabe’s honorary degree withdrawn was successful and he was stripped of the honour by Edinburgh university in 2008.

Many feel that nowadays honorary degrees are awarded far too indiscriminately, with many an honorary degree being presented to celebrities, those who are famous for little more than being famous, rather than having achieved any honour or distinction in any specific field. Some would argue that this devalues the honorary degree, marking it out as a meaningless gesture, style over substance, given for no reason other than to gain publicity or to attempt to capitalise off the publicity of others. Others might argue that it makes no difference whatsoever as honorary degrees never had any worth in the first place. One thing is certain though; the practice of awarding honorary degrees is still very prevalent, and is likely to continue – clearly academic institutions feel they have much to gain from the practice, just as those who receive them are glad to be the recipients.