The National Universities Commission has announced new guidelines for the award of honorary doctorates to curb indiscriminate conferment and its misuse.

In a statement on Thursday, NUC said, “The Commission has observed, with grave concern, the increasing incidence of indiscriminate conferment and misuse of honorary doctorate degrees within the Nigerian university system. In response to this development, the management of the commission has approved comprehensive Guidelines for the Award and Use of Honorary Doctorate Degrees in Nigeria,” the NUC said.

The latest guidelines stated that only universities (both private and public) approved by the NUC can award honorary doctorates in Nigeria, and that institutions must have graduated their first set of PhD students before they can be eligible.

Additionally, the NUC affirmed that only individuals with recognisable and exceptional contributions can be awarded honorary degrees, and that the process must be transparent, including the publication of selection procedures on the university’s website, and must ensure balanced representation across gender, race, nationality, and discipline.

The guidelines stated that self-nominated candidates and serving public officials, whether elected or appointed, are excluded from being awardees. All aspects of the nominations process, which must be conducted by a statutory committee and approved by the university senate and governing council, are to be treated confidentially.

The NUC guidelines restrict the number of persons to be awarded at a convocation to three, require that the certification always carry the approved nomenclature or title ‘Honoris Causa’, and state that the recipient must be awarded in person unless it is a posthumous honour. It can also be awarded virtually in exceptional cases.

As per the guidelines, the conferment must be without any payment and awardees can use Doctor of Law (Honoris Causa) or LL.D. (h.c.); Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) or D.Litt. (h.c.) after their names but are prevented from using ‘Dr’, which the NUC said was solely reserved for holders of earned degrees and medical professionals.

The guidelines also stated that all awarding universities must provide both written and verbal orientation to recipients on how to use the award, regularly publish awardee names on the official website for transparency, and make formal mechanisms available to rescind awards whenever an awardee is convicted of fraud or engages in unethical conduct.

The NUC reiterated that every university and degree-awarding institution must strictly adhere to the new directive, citing the 2012 Keffi Declaration, signed by all vice-chancellors.