The Federal Government has prohibited recipients of honorary degrees from prefixing “Dr” to their names in official, academic, or professional settings, declaring any violation a form of academic fraud.
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, announced the new policy on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while briefing State House correspondents on two Federal Executive Council (FEC) approvals from the previous cabinet meeting on April 30.
Accompanied by the Minister of State for Education, Prof Suwaiba Ahmad, Alausa said the FEC had approved a uniform policy to curb what he described as decades of indiscriminate conferral of honorary degrees 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,” Alausa said. “We’ve seen awards being used for political patronage, for financial gain, as well as the conferral of awards on serving public officials, which should not happen under the ethics of honorary degree awards.”
Under the new rules, recipients must cite the full honorary designation after their names. For example: 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,” Alausa stated. “Misrepresentation of honorary degrees as earned academic credentials shall be considered academic fraud and subject to legal and reputational consequences.”
The policy restricts honorary degrees to four types: 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 programmes are barred from conferring any honorary degrees.
All honorary degrees must carry the words “honorary” or “Honoris Causa” on certificates and in all references.
While the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities attempted similar guidelines in the 2012 Keffi Declaration, Alausa noted that earlier effort lacked legal backing. “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.”
The Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission (NUC) will issue a circular to all vice-chancellors, registrars, and governing councils. Convocation programmes will be monitored, and the government will collaborate with the media to discourage improper attribution of academic titles.
The ministry will also publish an annual list of legitimate honorary degree recipients. Alausa confirmed that the NUC has statutory power to enforce the policy.
More details to follow.
