Nothing wrong with honorary PhDs, something wrong with ‘bought’ doctorate degrees
There are only three acceptable ways through which one can be called ‘Dr’. One, through studying medicine; two, through triumphing a doctorate class after three to four years of study; and, lastly, being honored by a reputable university for immense personal achievements.
So you can be Dr Adamson Muula because you have a medical degree; Dr Danwood Mzikenge Chirwa because, after your master’s degree, you enrolled for a doctorate degree and triumphed; Dr Saulos Klaus Chilima because after a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics from the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College he successfully defending his doctorate degree with the University of Bolton in the United Kingdom (UK), Dr Ethel Kamwendo Banda her music contribution or Dr Bakili Muluzi for outstanding work of championing and entrenching democracy.
So, if you call yourself a ‘Dr’ and you can hardly explain where, among the aforementioned three variables, you fit then you are fraud—you must be arrested.
In fact, the debate that Professor Chirwa started on social media principally aims at exposing and shaming people who cannot, convincingly and honestly, explain how their salutation changed from ‘Mr’ to ‘Dr’.
I do, of course, understand the merits of this debate. There has been an escalation of wayward colleges that are, actually, selling PhDs to those that salivate for them. These are colleges that turn people, in a flash, from being saluted as ‘Mr’ in the morning to ‘Dr’ in the afternoon.
However, in the raging debate of naming and shaming the riffraff that stagger around with bought PhDs, I have noted a condescending mistake coming from overzealous quarters extending their condemnation even to people with honorary doctorate degrees.
Let’s face it; there is always a possessive feeling among academics in these reputable universities to own and protect PhDs as if it only belongs to them.
Of course, you can always understand them because their PhDs are products of years of exhausting research work and study.
However, I believe they can defend the integrity of their hard-won PhDs without suppressing the undeniable truth that one can also get a PhD through honorary means.
Honorary doctorate degrees are real and they should not be trivialized and suppressed. In fact, most people who earn honorary doctorate degrees do more to society than those with so called hard-won degrees.
That is why; in naming and shaming those who stagger around with bought PhDs – such as ‘Professor’ Getrude Mutharika, ‘Dr’ Jean Mathana, ‘Dr’ Ben Phiri, ‘Dr’ Ken Zikhale N’goma – we should sober up and accept that honorary degrees are not fake.
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These honorary Doctorates are mainly given to Africans so they can feel and look EDUCATED. Just look at the way they use them compared to others.
If it is an Honorary, you dont need to be addressed as Dr…
Its reserved for those who have earned it in academia
But in Malawi they brag about an honourary
Another dimension to this topic is how to address holders of Doctorate degrees as given in the book titled “The Protocol School of Washington’s HONOR & RESPECT: THE OFFICIAL GUIDE TO NAMES, TITLES AND FORMS OF ADDRESS”. It is available online for sale.
The Protocol School advises, among other things: “Holder of Doctorates who work in academia or research institutions use Dr. (name) professionally and socially. Thus, a PhD in Biology doing research at the local university or lab probably uses Dr. and everybody thins it’s right.
Holders of academic Doctorates who work outside academia or research typically do not insist on [being addressed as] Dr. Neither a PhD in Finance at a Bank & Trust Company, nor a PhD in American History working for Xerox is likely to insist on being addressed as Dr.”
As for honorary-degree recipients: “They may be addressed as Dr. (name) in correspondence from, or conversation by, the granting university. But not at other universities, and not in the professional life off campus. They may use the pertinent post-nominal abbreviation for the honorary degree with the words ‘honoris causa’, to underscore the degree is honorary – not earned.”
Thus, to repeat, if we were to follow this protocol, only Doctorate holders doing research at universities or laboratories would be addressed as “Dr xxx”. The rest (yup, I know you are thinking about the so many che uje’s outside universities insisting on being Dr), sorry, ntaji wasowa, mukutakata. A ma honorary doctorate not even allowed kutakata.
Exactly! Only granting institutions can address a recipient of an honorary doctorate as a “Dr”. It’s extremely presumptuous for such a recipient to address himself/herself as “Dr”. As for third parties, well, umakhala umbuli-mbuli chabe.
Many years ago, I was shown a private letter by Bakili where he signed off as “Dr. Bakili Muluzi”. But then, it is widely accepted that the crook ndi muburuti.
Ha!ha!ha! Bakili Muluzi even appended the title Dr to his signature on a dummy cheque he was presenting to the Minister of Sports ( then Henderson Mabeti ) when Atcheya was sponsoring Bullets FC. Check file footage at “Daily Times ” or “Nation”. I nearly fainted with laughter that day.
Zoonadi, Bawo. Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has a PhD in history from the University of Edinburgh. Did anybody ever call him Dr Brown? He would only be called Dr Brown if he went into academia. Barack Obama is a professor of law. Ever heard anybody call him Professor Obama? He’d be addressed as Prof if he went back to his alma mater ( Harvard ) to teach.
Very well presented. All else is misleading the public.
Further, I also think it may not be correct to use the title Dr. to refer to Ujeni who holds a first degree in medicine. In this case, Ujeni ndi medical doctor (not PhD or other relevant doctorate holder). Dr. is a title for doctorate degree e.g. PhD
You are WRONG @Tiyamike. “Dr ” is a title associated with medicine. It is the world of academia in general that usurped the title to give it to persons who have obtained a post-Master’s degree qualification. In France, for, instance, one who has an equivalent of a PhD is never called “Medicin” ( doctor ). Ask Dr Perks Ligoya. He obtained his equivalent of a PhD in Economics from France. Frenchmen would be surprised to learn that he is called Dr when he has never studied medicine. To the average person in the US or UK, a Dr is a medical doctor unless the PhD doctor qualifies himself/herself as a Doctor of Philosophy in, say, Economics, Mathematics, Finance, etc.
Bottom line: “Dr ” should be the preserve of medical doctors only. The world should find another title to address holders of PhDs.
But doctorate is for those working at research Station or University. Straetic managers do not need that rubbish called doctorate. How many leaders in developed countries with doctorates? Or how many successful CEOs with doctorates?
@President, we have many of them working in companies. Example:Jack Welsh once a CEO of General Electric had a PhD which he studied for although he never wanted to be addressed as Dr Jack Welsh.
Dr. Angela Merkel, the leader of Germany. She has a PhD in quantum chemistry. Her husband also holds a PhD and is still conducting research at some university.
I agree with late Dr. Hastings Banda that in our society we leave with educated savages.
Fiko you are defending the indefensible. Honourary degrees may not be fake, but take it that they are useless. How many times did the Nigerian Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wole Soyinka declined to be awarded such degrees? How many times did Robert Mugabe reject such degrees? Although institutions persuaded Mandela to accept the honour, have you ever heard him being saluted as Dr. Nelson Mandela? Why should our people all of a sudden been making noise about the useless honourary degrees? You can tell that those people with lust for such a title attach greater importance to the title than their names. Is it only in Africa or in Malawi where politicians get recognised by institutions of higher learning for such honourary degrees? What have they done better than Politicians in the UK or USA that we have never heard any as a recipient of such useless degrees? Not even in Russia, does such a thing happen. Perhaps, I have gone so far away. Would any politician in Malawi equal the calibre of Paul Kagame? Don’t you think or those Universities think Paul Kagame has done something worth recognition when the Man brought Rwanda from the ashes to a level it is now? Do we hear of him being called Dr, or does he bother to bulldoze any university in the world let alone the National University of Rwanda to award him with an honourary degree? He may have been approached by so many Universities, but I believe the man feels it is not necessary. How long did it take Polytechnic to award Getrude to award him the honourary degree when she started talking about beautifying Malawi? After getting the title is Malawi more beautiful now? Go to Mzuzu to see the amount of garbage that is messing up the city.
Honorary degrees are just that. You can not call the recipient DR. We just show how backwards we are by flaunting honorary degrees as if we worked for them. These day it’s hard to know who is real and who is not. It has just become like mfunda
Thank you Mpakateni for the clear explanation and good examples of both African and European leaders who do not tolerate this nonsense. I think this whole obsession with honorary or purchased degrees puts Malawi very high on the level of stupidity and a laughing stock.
I am more interested in the presidents who have had these degrees, namely Bakili Muluzi, Joyce Banda and Bingu Mutharika. Bakili and Joyce bought their degrees to match their predecessors in the misplaced belief that they would be more respected if they get addressed as ‘Dr’, while I believe Bingu was not satisfied to be addressed as mere ‘Dr’ when his younger brother, a minister was getting away with the title of ‘polofesa’ (to quote Grezelder), so he just had to get it.
But then there is the issue of cost, Both Joyce and Bingu had to travel with their entourage to the East to get their undeserved qualifications. When they came back home, on top of the travel costs, government had to spend huge amounts of money to change presidential portraits that hang in offices across the land, only to include that stupid title. Other services meanwhile, suffered. Education, Health, Infrastructure, delayed salaries for the most low paid of civil servants. Was it all worthy it?
And Mpakateni, you will be surprised to see that the honorary doctorate and or PhD, Malawians are given jobs and or Ministerial which i believe is what Danwood is talking about! Honorary doctorate should not be used to take over Jobs from those who can do the job because they went to school to do that than someone who has that useless honorary doctorate because he is connected to Politics! I remember if my memory is not cheating me, President Lazarus Chakwera,once said, I am Lazarus Chakwera! People started calling him Professor Lazarus Chakwera! Now we are forced to call him Dr Lazarus Chakwera. I just want to believe that Malawians we are stupid for stupid things!
Good day.
Mpakateni, I agree with you 101%. Actually Gertrude Mutharika needs to be stripped of all her titles. She has proven to be a disgrace to our nation. Mzuzu, as you have rightly observed, is a heap of garbage and yet she was running Beautify Malawi. She just used BEAM to enrich herself. Please let us ‘un-Dr’ and ‘unprofessor’ her!
Mike fiko if you don’t have PhD, come enroll with us, we are university of Oxford at Malawi situated behind the main mosque. You will join our fast track programme and will be at liberty to graduate with the coming cohort. To ensure we are seen to be demonstrating quality, you will have to defend your thesis in Tete, Mozambique if not UK. Or do you have any alternative place in mind? We can even award you the paper the same day you enroll. Might cost you £19,000 only we accept instalments.
Yes honorary PhDs are not fake but they are jot meant to be used publicly. Nelson Mandera had a zillion of PhDs but he never used Dr. There are so many examples I can give to buttress my point. The bottom line is that there is no Dr Bakili Muluzi but rather we have Mr Bakili Muluzi just like we have no Professor Gertrude Mutharika but rather we have Mrs Gertrude Mutharika. The government should bar people with honorary PhDs from using the Dr title. It is as simple as that.
Kkkkk anthu okuba awa asiyeni ndalama zonse athela kumangila manyumba azidina agumuka pompano
Ya Dr reforms khala ngati ndi yapawindo, dude never attended classes fellow students were surprised to see him graduating. MIM ma shortcut too much
Why beating about the bush. Why couldn’t you tell us the source of kainja’s PhD?
Kodi makosana kuti munthu kuti apeze PhD yoti aziwerenga amayamba bwanji? Pamafunika. qualifications ena? Osati PhD za Jerusalem za fake
It is not customary for holders of honorary doctorates to use the the prefix “Dr”. However, they can add “ DSc (h.c.)” or “Hon DSc”, depending on the field of the honorary doctorates, after their names. For example, the correct way to refer to Gertrude Mutharika is “ Mrs Gertrude Mutharika, Hon DLitt” or whatever her honorary doctorate was in.
No one with their head screwed the right way ever uses the Dr title from an honorary PhD!
Why do their not give honorary MSCE certificates to many farmers doing well if it is important! Why only PHDs never a masters degree! or a JC or PSLC. There is something fishy and we must stop that bad moves through a policy. People are using this for bad purposes.
Most people with PhD degree or medicine have 12 years of tertiary education in total on average.
Not very sure on Malawi doctors though, somebody can help here.
Honorary degrees are supposed to be silent but for some reason here in Malawi they are so loud. in short, nobody should be saluted by them unless you are a medical doctor or hold the actual terminal degree.
Self Giving is also another way – traditional doctors do give the doctoral papers themselves. Dr Zanu Zayenda – their names sound. They are all in newspapers ads.
@True
Great one, self-acclaimed
Anayiwaladi 4th category a Fiko’wo, kkk
Fake or not, a PhD matters. Get ONE. And enjoy it.
The author misses one crucial point about honorary degrees. Even when they are not fake, they’re not supposed to be used by the honorees as part of their official title—only the university that offered then the honorary degree can use it in referring to them in official functions by that university. Our I’ll-educated leaders and other insecure people like to parade these titles in a manner that makes them a laughing stock among people and in societies where this is well understood. President Mandela had more than 200 honorary doctorates but you hardly heard him referred to in the international media as Dr. Mandela. President Obama also had many such degrees and taught the University of Chicago but you never see references to him as Dr. Professor Obama. In fact American leaders in Congress and European politicians who either have academic or honorary doctorates do not refer to themselves or are they referred to as Dr. let alone professor. The use of these titles in many African countries and media is a shameful display of ignorance for the world’s least educated continent.
GOOD PRESENTATION;. ONE POINT TO ADD IS; MEDICAL DEGREE AND HONARARY ARE NOT PHD. THEY ARE DOCTOR DEGREES. PhD is different.