The Federal Government has banned recipients of honorary degrees from using the “Dr” prefix before their names in official, academic, or professional contexts, declaring such usage as academic fraud with legal and reputational consequences.
Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, made the announcement on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, while briefing State House correspondents in Abuja alongside the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad.
Alausa said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved a new uniform policy regulating the award and use of honorary degrees by Nigerian universities. The policy aims to curb the growing abuse, commercialisation, and politicisation of honorary degrees.
“The recent trend we’ve seen with the award of honorary degrees has revealed a growing abuse and politicisation of this academic privilege,” the minister stated.
He highlighted issues such as awards given for political patronage, financial gain, and to serving public officials, which contradict the ethics of honorary degrees.
Under the new guidelines, honorary degree recipients must no longer prefix “Dr” to their names. Instead, they are required to use the full honorary designation after their name, such as “Chief Louis Clark, D.Lit. (Doctor of Literature, Honoris Causa)” or “Mrs Miriam Adamu, LL.D. Hons.”
“Misrepresentation of honorary degrees as earned academic credentials shall be considered academic fraud and subject to legal and reputational consequences,” Alausa warned.
The policy also limits the types of honorary degrees that can be awarded to four: Doctor of Laws (LL.D), Doctor of Letters (D.Lit), Doctor of Science (D.Sc), and Doctor of Humanities (D.Arts). Only universities with active PhD-awarding programmes will be permitted to confer them.
All honorary degree certificates and references must clearly include the words “honorary” or “Honoris Causa.” The government will issue a circular to all vice-chancellors, monitor compliance at convocations, and publish an annual list of legitimate recipients.
The move addresses long-standing concerns in the academic community about the indiscriminate conferment of honorary degrees, which previous voluntary guidelines like the 2012 Keffi Declaration failed to control due to lack of legal backing.
The National Universities Commission (NUC) will enforce the
