“Doctorates”,
“Doctorates”...

Are we going crazy?

I remember reading somewhere that the late Ven. Dr. Welivitiye Soratha Nayake Thero, a former Vice Chancellor of the Vidyodaya University, sought the consent of the late Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike to confer upon her an honorary doctoral degree (I guess it was a D.Litt - Doctor of Letters) in recognition of her services to university education, particularly for the unstinted support she gave to Pirivena education.

She is supposed to have told the Venerable Thero that it will be a dishonour to the degree as well as a slur on her. She graciously, but wisely, turned down the offer. Such was the greatness of the lady and the humility with which she conducted herself in public life.

Many would recall that much later, in the late 1990s, the Malwatte Chapter of the Siyam Nikaya conferred upon her a high honour and very rightly she accepted it with grace.

It was ironically not a Doctorate but a rare honour conferred upon a lay person by the Karaka Sangha Sabha. Notably, President Rajapaksa too was conferred another rare honour by the Malwatte Chapter when he was the Minister of Fisheries for his dedicated public service. These are in order and such recognition is necessary.

Today, this is not the case. People canvass for Doctoral degrees, and there are many politicians who have been conferred Doctoral degrees by spurious organisations. Usually, Doctoral degrees are awarded by universities and not by fly-by-night third grade organisations.

These highly questionable organisations, which do not command the respect of the public at large, have no power or authority to confer degrees upon anyone. They do it for various reasons with ulterior motives.

One wonders looking at the list of conferees whether some of them paid huge sums of money to obtain this so called ‘Acharya’ title. Be that as it may, the whole thing looks a sham.

The other day, I read that some NGO was awarding honorary doctorates to various people. This same organisation for years has been awarding this kind of degrees. Are people aware that these ‘Acharya’ degrees do not mean a thing? My surmise is that this organisation and many others trying to emulate it are hoodwinking awardees as well as the public.

How does one earn a Ph.D and what does a Ph.D mean? Ph.D is the abbreviation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Many would be curious to know why a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree is conferred on those who work on natural sciences such as Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics etc., or social sciences such as Economics, Business Administration etc.

These do not have at the doctoral level much to do with the field of philosophy. Strangely, the Ph.D. degree has little to do with what most people perceive when they think of the word “philosophy”.

The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree is the highest earned degree awarded by a university. People who earn this degree are required to pursue original research in a particular area of study.

Because the title of the degree includes the word “Philosophy”, there is a common misconception that the degree is awarded to people who major in Philosophy. This, of course, is not true. The reference is to the Philosophy of Science and the development of scientific methods.

The D.Litt, which I referred to earlier, stands for Doctor of Letters (Latin: Litterarum doctor) and is an honorary degree.

This is conferred on those who have contributed to the humanities and/or society.

In Sri Lanka, there are many distinguished personalities on whom the D.Litt has been conferred. These people are considered notable in the public eye or have performed a service worthy of recognition.

Another degree that is conferred upon those who are formally recognised by a university for an individual’s achievements and contribution to a particular field is the Honorary Doctorate.

It is awarded with the words honoris causa meaning ‘for the sake of the honour.’ When these are conferred, the university waives the usual formal requirements for the award of that degree.

Unfortunately, with organisations whose credibility is highly questionable conferring Doctorates to all and sundry and conferees using the title Dr. without any hesitation, the Ph.Ds have become rather undervalued, because the public wouldn’t know who have earned it through hard academic work and who have canvassed various influential people and obtained the ‘Honorary Doctorate.’ Some of these ‘Honorary’ conferees ignorantly use the letters Ph.D after their name.

This certainly has a repercussion because the value of education is diluted to a low level. Also, people wouldn’t know the difference between the genuine and the spurious Ph.D.

Another side to this story is the quality of the conferees. Since of late, any Tom, Dick and Harry seem to be eligible for the honorary doctorates that are being awarded.

Some awardees are thugs, others criminals, and yet others unethical business persons who have become filthy rich through manipulations and all sorts of rackets.

That we are being hood winked by groups of persons through the conferment of these so called Honorary Doctorates is a sad reflection of, to what level we have descended. Worst is that these conferees use the title Dr. consistently on all occasions.

I really feel sad for those who have toiled all their life to earn a Ph.D or have contributed so much to be recognised with an Honorary Doctorate from a recognised university.

As we are now witnessing a surge in public interest litigation cases, I hope someone will petition the Supreme Court to stop this menace of spurious doctorates being awarded by third grade organisations for ulterior motives. Legislation must be enacted by the government to stop those who have been behind these very unsavoury honorary doctorate schemes.

By allowing these “boutiques” to dish out degrees of this nature, we are becoming a laughing stock in the whole world.

We have gone from bad to worse; let this not progress any further. The Government, the general public and those who are genuinely interested in the image of our country must come together to stop this nonsense.