The Federal Government has banned recipients of honorary degrees from prefixing “Dr” to their names, declaring such usage a misrepresentation of academic credentials and warning that it will now be treated as academic fraud.
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, while briefing State House correspondents on approvals by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) from its April 30 meeting.
Honorary degrees are academic distinctions awarded by universities to individuals in recognition of their contributions to society, rather than through formal academic study or research.
Explaining the new policy, the minister said recipients can no longer use ‘Dr’ before their names. Instead, they are required to place the full honorary title after their names to clearly indicate its non-academic nature.
“Recipients shall not prefix doctor to their names in official, academic or professional usage,” the minister said, adding, “Misrepresentation of honorary degrees as earned academic credentials shall be considered academic fraud and subject to legal and reputational consequences.”
He illustrated the proper usage with examples such as, “For instance, you can use Chief Louis Clark, D.Lit. (Doctor of Literature, Honoris Causa)” or “Mrs Miriam Adamu, LL.D. Hons.”
The policy is also aimed at curbing what the government described as the long-standing abuse of honorary degrees for political patronage and financial gain—an entrenched practice that has undermined the integrity of academic awards.
As part of the reforms, universities are now limited to awarding only four categories of honorary degrees: Doctor of Laws (LL.D), Doctor of Letters (D.Lit), Doctor of Science (D.Sc), and Doctor of Humanities (D.Arts).
Additionally, institutions that do not run active PhD programmes are prohibited from conferring honorary degrees altogether.
