The Federal Government on Wednesday announced a new policy prohibiting recipients of honorary degrees from using the title “Dr” before their names in official, academic, or professional settings.
The government said such usage amounts to misrepresentation of academic qualifications and will now be treated as academic fraud, attracting legal and reputational consequences.
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, disclosed this at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while briefing State House correspondents on two Federal Executive Council (FEC) approvals not earlier announced after the April 30 cabinet meeting. He was joined by the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad.
According to Alausa, the FEC approved a uniform national policy governing the award and use of honorary degrees in Nigerian universities, aimed at curbing abuse, politicisation, and financial inducement in the system.
He said the government was concerned that honorary degrees had increasingly been used for political patronage and monetary influence, undermining academic integrity.
“We’ve seen awards being used for political patronage, financial gain, as well as conferring them on serving public officials, which violates the ethics of honorary degree awards,” he said.
Under the new rules, recipients of honorary degrees are barred from using “Dr” as a prefix. Instead, they must indicate the honorary nature of the award after their names, such as “D.Lit. (Honoris Causa)” or “LL.D. Hons.”
Alausa stressed that misrepresenting honorary awards as earned degrees will now be regarded as academic fraud.
The policy also limits honorary degrees to four categories: Doctor of Laws (LL.D), Doctor of Letters (D.Lit), Doctor of Science (D.Sc), and Doctor of Humanities (D.Arts). In addition, universities without active PhD programmes are no longer allowed to confer honorary degrees.
The minister explained that the move was necessary to address the growing trend of newer institutions awarding honorary doctorates despite lacking postgraduate research capacity.
He added that all honorary awards must clearly state “honorary” or “Honoris Causa” on certificates and official references.
Alausa noted that previous attempts to regulate honorary degrees, such as the 2012 “Keffi Declaration” by the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, failed due to lack of legal backing.
He said the new policy now has full Federal Executive Council approval and will be enforced by the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission (NUC).
According to him, a circular will be issued to all vice-chancellors and governing councils, while convocation ceremonies will be monitored for compliance.
The government also plans to publish an annual list of legitimate honorary degree recipients to protect the integrity of academic qualifications.
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