Notes From Atlanta Fight Against Vanity Academic Titles in Africa

Notes From Atlanta
Fight Against Vanity Academic Titles in Africa
Farooq A. Kperogi

Saturday 7th June, 2025

On May 30, 2025, Ghana’s Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) issued what it termed a “final caution” against individuals, especially politicians, entrepreneurs, and other public figures whose vanity drives them to flaunt honorary doctorates and professorships as though these titles had been academically earned.

“The Commission will henceforth take legal action against individuals found flouting these directives, alongside publicly naming and shaming them,” GTEC said in a statement signed by Professor Augustine Ocloo, the Commission’s Acting Deputy Director-General.

Ghana’s commendable stance follows Malawi’s National Council for Higher Education, which, on March 27, 2025, categorically stated that honorary doctorates and professorships confer no entitlement to use the titles “Dr.” or “Prof.” in personal or professional contexts.

According to Malawi’s council, honorary degrees are ceremonial recognitions that are markedly distinct from academic qualifications, and recipients should refrain from using these titles as personal prefixes.

The concerns raised by Ghana and Malawi echo earlier decisions in Nigeria. At their 27th conference, held at Nasarawa State University, Keffi, in September 2012, the Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities adopted the “Keffi Declaration,” which significantly tightened guidelines for honorary awards.

Central to this declaration was a prohibition on awarding honorary doctorates to serving elected or appointed government officials. They said such conferrals must recognize genuine contributions to scholarship and societal advancement rather than political influence or wealth.

The Keffi Declaration also placed stringent conditions on awarding honorary doctorates. Notably, institutions without established doctoral programs were barred from conferring honorary degrees, and even qualified institutions were restricted to awarding a maximum of three honorary doctorates annually.

Arguably the declaration’s most contested provision, however, was its insistence that recipients of honorary degrees must not prefix their names with “Dr.” In a country with titular obsession like Nigeria, I knew that guideline would be observed in the breach because it has no force of authority.

But such collective measures represent significant progress toward remedying the degradation of academic culture across various African nations, where honorary degrees have increasingly become symbols of wealth and political clout rather than scholarly achievement.

It is widely recognized that honorary doctorates in many African contexts have frequently been dispensed indiscriminately, often in exchange for financial contributions or political favors rather than scholarly or societal merit.

Indeed with a few honorable exceptions, most of the people who receive honorary doctorates are the kinds of people Chinua Achebe, in his memoir There Was a Country, famously characterized as “politicians with plenty of money but very low IQs.”

His vivid characterization underscores the crux of the issue, which is the alarming and growing trend of conflating political power and financial prowess with academic excellence.

That higher education authorities in Ghana, Malawi, and Nigeria have taken deliberate steps to establish clear criteria and limitations for honorary awards is laudable. These guidelines directly confront practices where institutions with limited academic offerings, sometimes barely established, have historically granted honorary degrees without genuine justification.

Such indiscriminate practices have severely undermined the value and respect traditionally associated with doctoral titles.

Yet, while Africa’s rigorous approach to regulating honorary doctorates is justified by its unique cultural and political circumstances, it is useful to compare these developments with practices elsewhere.

In the United States, prestigious undergraduate-only institutions, such as Knox College in Illinois—known for conferring an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts to comedian Stephen Colbert—and Amherst College in Massachusetts, regularly grant honorary doctorates during their graduation ceremonies.

However, these institutions’ practices are typically symbolic gestures of recognition and respect, devoid of the vanity-driven excesses observed in many African contexts.

The crucial difference lies in how recipients use these honorary titles post-award. Internationally, accepted convention dictates that honorary titles be appended after the recipient’s name, using “h.c.” (honoris causa) to clearly distinguish honorary from earned academic credentials. For instance, one would write Muhammad Abdullah, LLD h.c., not “Dr. Muhammad Abdullah,” and certainly “Dr. Muhammad Abdullah, LLD h.c.,” which I have seen a few times.

Yet, adherence to this convention varies considerably across cultures and individuals.

Even in the United States, exceptions to the convention exist. A notable example involved a community college president in California who insisted on being addressed as “Dr.” after being bestowed an honorary degree by an obscure institution.

His pretension triggered a humorous protest from his staff, who collectively adopted “Dr.” prefixes themselves, sarcastically citing equally obscure honors. Embarrassed, the president ultimately dropped his title.

Historical precedents further illustrate complexities surrounding honorary degrees and their usage. Benjamin Franklin, a foundational figure in American history whom many people outside America through the 100-dollar bill, embraced the title “Dr.” purely on the strength of honorary degrees.

Similarly, Maya Angelou, the renowned African-American poet and activist who had no formal higher education qualifications, insisted on being addressed as “Dr. Angelou” based on the numerous honorary doctoral degrees that several institutions bestowed on her.

In Nigeria, iconic historical figures have also prominently used honorary doctoral titles as if they earned them. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria’s first ceremonial president, widely known as “Dr. Azikiwe,” held no earned doctorate. He started his PhD at Columbia University in New York but didn’t complete it.

Tai Solarin, a revered educational activist and social critic, similarly prefixed “Dr.” to his name based exclusively on honorary recognition. Unlike Azikiwe, he never even attempted earning a PhD.

These examples underscore the deep cultural and historical roots of the practice, which presents significant challenges to the enforcement of new regulations. Indeed, the cultural acceptance of using honorary titles as legitimate prefixes is deeply entrenched, complicating efforts by African higher education regulators to enforce their prohibitions effectively.

Nevertheless, the new regulatory frameworks in Ghana, Malawi, and Nigeria represent critical efforts toward reestablishing the integrity and credibility of academic distinctions. The explicit threat of legal action by Ghana’s GTEC signals a strong commitment to combating egregious abuses of honorary titles, potentially serving as a deterrent against future misuse.

Whether these measures will succeed remains uncertain, especially given the cultural resistance to its reform and the fact that it’s an entrenched practice. However, the very act of publicly addressing and legislatively confronting these abuses represents significant progress. Such regulatory actions signal a praiseworthy commitment to restoring academic prestige and integrity within higher education institutions across the continent.

Ultimately, the effectiveness of these regulations will hinge not just on enforcement but also on widespread public education and the promotion of genuine academic achievements.

Universities must actively demonstrate the rigorous processes behind earned doctorates and highlight the scholarly dedication and intellectual rigor required. Only through a collective effort to valorize genuine academic accomplishments over superficial honors can the true prestige of doctoral titles be restored.