Each Spring, thousands of American graduate students don fancy robes and walk across stages to accept their doctorate degrees. For most, the ceremony is the culmination of years of dedicated scholarship, hard work, emotional breakdowns, and tuition dues.
But for others present on commencement day, the struggle is not so real. Joining the students on stage, celebrities and business moguls — Mike Tyson, Kylie Minogue, Oprah, Ben Affleck, and Bill Gates among them — flock to college campuses to receive “honorary” doctorate degrees. Unlike the students, these luminaries are given a free pass: universities allow them to bypass all of the usual requirements.
Though these degrees are more ornamental than functional, the practice of handing them out stems from a somewhat ignoble past.
For more than 500 years, the honorary degree has provided an opportunity for colleges to build relationships with the rich, famous, and well-connected, in hopes of securing financial donations and cheap publicity.
A Brief History of the Honorary Degree
In 1478, representatives from England’s Oxford University approached a young bishop named Lionel Woodville. At the time, Woodville was a man of great honor: he was not only the head of the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter, but enjoyed the distinction of being King Edward IV’s brother-in-law. Well-connected, wealthy, and of noble standing, he was just the kind of man that Oxford wanted to curry favor with.
At the behest of the university, a finely-dressed courrier was sent to deliver Woodville a doctorate degree. For the nobleman, all of Oxford’s strict academic requirements were excused; with the presentation of a piece of paper, he was swiftly and automatically declared the modern-day equivalent of a Ph.D.
This marked the first “honorary” degree in history.
“It was clearly an attempt to honor and obtain the favor of a man with great influence,” writes one historian — and for Oxford, the move paid off. Shortly after awarding him the degree, Woodville was offered (and accepted) a post as the Chancellor of the University. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, prestigious institutions like Oxford would don hundreds of other men, all of whom were members of the noble elite, similar degrees. In 1642 alone, some 350 doctorates were doled out by Charles I — many of which went directly to members of his court.
Meanwhile, in North America, Harvard University was in the midst of promoting Increase Mather, an influential Puritan minister, to President of the University. In 1692, just days before his appointment, Harvard instantaneously bestowed Mather with a ‘Doctor of Sacred Theology’ — a degree for which other candidates had to study a minimum of 5 years to obtain. This was the beginning of a long, steady procession of honorary doctorates at America’s most prestigious institutions.
Between 1700 and 1900, more than 200 different types of degrees were awarded, ranging from B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. titles (which came with all the benefits of earned degrees), to the LL.D., which was strictly ornamental and was not meant to insinuate academic prowess.
Nonetheless, recipients of the latter often still considered themselves deserving of the title: Benjamin Franklin, who received honorary LL.D. degrees from 7 universities (including Harvard and Yale), was known to strut around town pronouncing himself “Doctor Franklin,” and often requested others refer to him in a similar manner.
Why do Modern universities give out Honorary Degrees anyway?
A little over a decade ago, Arthur E. Levine, president of Teachers College at Columbia University admitted that honorary degrees are about two things: money and publicity.
“Sometimes they are used to reward donors who have given money; sometimes they are used to draw celebrities to make the graduation special,” he told The New York Times. “I’ve always viewed it as the last lesson a college can teach, by showing examples of people who most represent the values the institution stands for.”
Last year, Burlington Free Press writer Tim Johnson compiled a list of every University of Vermont honorary degree recipient from 2002 to 2012, then dug into financial statements to see how much each of those individuals had contributed to the university in the decade preceding their “honor.” Here’s what he found:
“Of the 60 recipients, 35 were on the record as having made donations to the university, for a total of $13.6 million (an average of $228,248)…even excluding one degree recipient with an outsized $9 million contribution, the average was $68,854.”
His takeaway — that the university simply gave a degree to those who’d donated large sums of money — is no mystery. In another instance, after businessman J. Mack Robinson donated $10 million to Georgia State University’s School of Business, the school almost immediately rewarded him with a doctorate degree for his “outstanding contributions to the field of business.”
Aside from stroking the intellectual egos of wealthy donors, many universities see the honorary degree process as an opportunity to score some free publicity.
There is perhaps no greater example of this than when New York’s Southhampton College awarded an honorary doctorate in “amphibious letters” to Kermit the Frog in 1996. In the aftermath, 31 newspapers picked up the story, resulting in a “free marketing bonanza that raised the college’s profile and drew hundreds of new admissions.”
Amidst this controversy, some universities — notably Cornell, Stanford, and UCLA — choose not to participate. William Barton Rogers, the founder of MIT, regarded the practice of giving honorary degrees as “literary almsgiving…of spurious merit and noisy popularity.” To this day, the school does not award them.
Likewise, when Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia, he explicitly banned honorary degrees, fearing that they would be awarded based on “political or religious enthusiasms rather than on scholarly considerations.”
Today, instead of awarding honorary degrees, the University of Virginia presents the “Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal,” an honor that is entirely separated from any associations with a doctorate degree.
Still, these institutions are a minority in the vast sea of colleges that continue the practice of doling out honorary degrees. And today, Jefferson’s fears seem to be as valid as they were 200 years ago.
Original article HERE
Very interesting and timely article. One question though – are the recipients of such degrees really allowed to use Dr. before their names?
ADMIN could DNO publish a list of Dominicans who were awarded such degrees?
ADMIN: Thank you for you suggestion for the article. By convention, honorary doctorates are not automatically included in one’s title for concerns of it being inappropriate but some recipients have chosen to do so. Benjamin Franklin reportedly the first individual to receive an honorary degree did include the title.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150330034606/http://honorarydegrees.wvu.edu/history
https://web.archive.org/web/20080705165157/http://scrc.swem.wm.edu/wiki/index.php/Honorary_degree_recipients
The answer is no!
You may give them the honor if you wish, but he cannot address himself as doctor; he is not suppose to write Dr. Roosevelt Skerrit on anything. Suppose you are are addressing a letter to him you can write
Dr. Roosevelt Skerrit
China Town Country,
Roseau
The commonwealth of Dominica.
If he is sending a letter to you he is not to write his return as:
Dr. Roosevelt Skerrit
China Town Country,
Roseau
The commonwealth of Dominica.
The doctor thing would have to be removed, it is the same as a man cannot address himself as “Mr.”
I can only introduce myself to someone by saying: ” My name is Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque; it is up to the person to either address me as Mr. Francisco, Mr. Telemaque, it is not mandatory for anybody to call anyone mister, miss or mistress.
Very enlightening piece of journalism that is well appreciated by curious minds. As I said in a previous comment that these honorary doctorates are mostly meaningless. Recipients of these artificial awards who make a huge hullabaloo over an ornamental gift are egomaniacs. Earn a real, functional doctorate by putting in the long, hard hours of self sacrifice, Mr. Skerrit. Stop this insatiable craving for praise.
They are not mostly meaningless, they are indeed meaningless in that they are not academically earned in any discipline. And can be reascended by the institution for any reason deem fit; and as in the case of Bill Cosby!
If I commit murder, and went to jail, my degrees cannot be taken away because I studied a scientific discipline took the required examinations passed them, hence, my degree says what I am, and if I apply for a job I can reference my degrees in the field and disciplines I was trained.
When Roosevelt get kicked off government, and he apply for a job, he cannot write in his job app: I have two honorary Ph.D’s
He would be ask; so, what do they represent?
His answer; well one made me Dr. Punjab, the other one I doh eh!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahash!
But you see that fool has already begin to fool himself that he is a medical doctor, that’s why he said 80% of sickness is in people’s mind; how stupid?
They do not simply give it out, the recipients pays plenty of money to the institutions in return. Some recipients as the now disgraced Bill Cosby, contributions to the university who gave one to him contributed many millions of dollars to the institution.
That Ph. D given to him was rescinded since his fall from grace. He he earned that Ph.D by perusing some academic discipline it could not be taken away. Generally, people are not given Ph.D because they are a politician.
that to e is a bogus gift by the Roman Catholic for the money Roosevelt gave to their boy bishop in Dominica. That is coming from a Nursing School, which I check for their accreditation, and found none!
If one can obtain an online degree in anything from them I be very skeptical. Skerrit does not have enough money to make continuous monetary donations as the rich do; his is a one time bought and paid for useless title, it’s all about money to the institutions.
That’s literally what they said in the article. Did you even read it?
If you are talking to me I do not have to read all of it to voice my opinions, simply because I know all about these things. Let me draw this to your attention also.
There is something called a tassel: The one on Roosevelt head is hanging between his eyes; had he earn an academic Ph.D, his tassel before commencement would be one side of his head, and upon graduation he would be instructed to place the tassel on the other side.
How I know that?
Well I went through three different graduations earning academic degrees!
What about you?
When it is a fake or bought bit of paper non-academic: tassel hangs between eyes!
I can earn a living from my degrees, nobody will employ Roosevelt with a bought bit of paper, he cannot even call himself doctor; nor present himself as Dr. Roosevelt Skerrit to anybody, they will laugh at him. Some institutions uses want to be idiots like Skerrit to earn money to keep their institutions operating.
Sometimes they are used to reward donors who have given money; lovely university donation.
I would lime to see how much he paid this time. Election is near and labour party supporters are easily fooled so anything to keep them groveling.
Interesting information DNO, many thanks.
Unfortunately, this article fails to reveal the countless graduates of prestigious universities who did no academic work because of wealth or pedigree. They are offered bona fide degrees through hereditary privilege.
This article would be complete had the writer indicate PM Skerritt’s connection to Duquesne University. It is well known that degrees awarded in that fashion are usually withdrawn after the recipients prove to be of questionable character. It would seem unlikely that a corrupt and hated, wicked figure like PM would be so honored by such a good institution.
Winston Warrington not everyone hates the PM as those who purports to with no reason. Those who do only spread proporganda and they seem to be a lot of them. They have no proof of all their allegations. Remember there is a Great One above us all and he knows and sees all things.
People do not normally respect there’s but those on the outside appreciate and the best in others . Our own people cry us down and only understand when it happens to them.
Let’s face it, he is only hated by a few of those who fail to beat him at the polls.
@winston warrington October 16, 2018
Yours above is a very good one! No wonder your thumbs rating is in the negative; these readers and commentators here do not like the truth, and what you have said here is very, very true. Thank you for pointing it out.
This is a silly question. If he is convicted of a crime this could happen. But unless he is convicted this is useless argument to raise. See how long it took Bill Cosby to be convicted and then stripped? Well we shall simply have to wait and see won’t we?
That’s because the article wasn’t written by DNO. It’s a reprint of another publication’s work.
Very enlightening piece..Hope it does not hurt anyone or anyone supporters…Too many times in the past,people have used artificial means,lies and shownsnship to decieve.Even calling out usnsuspecting people to clap and cheer.Shameful.Even motorcades????
Skerrit Must Go
Skerrit Must Go
Lazy Skerrit Must Go Now
% – Yup, very sad to see the level of lunatic & grandiose delusions the pervade the minds of Skerrit’s dwindling supporters.
And some of these people willfully CHOOSE to utter rank dotishness in support of “their PM” despite the glaring evidence that Skerrit & his cabal provide safe shelter for the principles of gross incompetence, laziness and backwardness.
Then again, Satan who fervently hates all human beings has loyal supporters of himself within the human race – loyal human supporters who know full well that Satan’s sole plan for them is to completely destroy them.
….smh……………
Thank you DNO for the article above. An excerpt from the article:
“A little over a decade ago, Arthur E. Levine, president of Teachers College at Columbia University admitted that honorary degrees are about two things: money and publicity.”
I’ll venture to say that in this present narcissistic era of selfies and self-aggrandizement, these honorary degrees may be even more entwined with money and publicity than they were a decade ago.