Olayiwola Matthew
The Federal Government has barred recipients of honorary degrees from using the “Dr” title, warning that doing so will now be treated as academic fraud.
Tunji Alausa, the minister of education announced the directive on Wednesday at the presidential villa in Abuja, following approval by the federal executive council.
He said the move was aimed at curbing the abuse and politicisation of honorary awards and restoring credibility to academic titles.
“The recent trend we’ve seen with the award of honorary degrees has revealed a growing abuse and politicisation of this academic privilege,” he said.
“We’ve seen awards being used for political patronage, for financial gain, as well as the conferral of awards on serving public officials, whichshould not happen.”
Under the new policy, recipients are prohibited from prefixing “Dr” to their names in any official, academic or professional setting. Instead, they are required to use the full honorary designation after their names.
“Recipients shall not prefix doctor to their names in official, academic or professional usage,” Alausa said, adding that “misrepresentation of honorary degrees as earned academic credentials shall be considered academic fraud and subject to legal and reputational consequences.”
The policy also limits the categories of honorary degrees Nigerian universities can award to four—Doctor of Laws (LL.D), Doctor of Letters (D.Lit), Doctor of Science (D.Sc), and Doctor of Humanities (D.Arts).
Alausa further stated that universities without active PhD programmes would no longer be permitted to confer honorary degrees, a move aimed at addressing the proliferation of such awards by newer institutions.
He noted that all honorary degrees must clearly indicate their status as “honorary” or “Honoris Causa”, while the Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission will enforce compliance and monitor convocation ceremonies.
According to the minister, the government will also publish an annual list of legitimate recipients to safeguard the integrity of academic qualifications.
