{"id":22999,"date":"2022-05-17T19:12:46","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T19:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees"},"modified":"2022-05-17T19:33:54","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T19:33:54","slug":"nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees","title":{"rendered":"Nothing wrong with honorary PhDs, something wrong with \u2018bought\u2019 doctorate degrees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. <\/strong><\/span>There are only three acceptable ways through which one can be called \u2018Dr\u2019. One, through studying medicine; two, through triumphing a doctorate class after three to four years of study; and, lastly, being honored by a reputable university for immense personal achievements.<\/p>\n

So you can be Dr Adamson Muula because you have a medical degree; Dr Danwood Mzikenge Chirwa because, after your master\u2019s degree, you enrolled for a doctorate degree and triumphed; Dr Saulos Klaus Chilima because after a bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degree in economics from the University of Malawi\u2019s Chancellor College he successfully defending his doctorate degree with the University of Bolton in the United Kingdom (UK), Dr Ethel Kamwendo Banda her music contribution or Dr Bakili Muluzi for outstanding work of championing and entrenching democracy.<\/p>\n

So, if you call yourself a \u2018Dr\u2019 and you can hardly explain where, among the aforementioned three variables, you fit then you are fraud\u2014you must be arrested.<\/p>\n

In fact, the debate that Professor Chirwa started on social media principally aims at exposing and shaming people who cannot, convincingly and honestly, explain how their salutation changed from \u2018Mr\u2019 to \u2018Dr\u2019.<\/p>\n

I do, of course, understand the merits of this debate. There has been an escalation of wayward colleges that are, actually, selling PhDs to those that salivate for them. These are colleges that turn people, in a flash, from being saluted as \u2018Mr\u2019 in the morning to \u2018Dr\u2019 in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

However, in the raging debate of naming and shaming the riffraff that stagger around with bought PhDs, I have noted a condescending mistake coming from overzealous quarters extending their condemnation even to people with honorary doctorate degrees.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it; there is always a possessive feeling among academics in these reputable universities to own and protect PhDs as if it only belongs to them. Of course, you can always understand them because their PhDs are products of years of exhausting research work and study.<\/p>\n

However, I believe they can defend the integrity of their hard-won PhDs without suppressing the undeniable truth that one can also get a PhD through honorary means.<\/p>\n

Honorary doctorate degrees are real and they should not be trivialized and suppressed. In fact, most people who earn honorary doctorate degrees do more to society than those with so called hard-won degrees.<\/p>\n

That is why; in naming and shaming those who stagger around with bought PhDs \u2013 such as \u2018Professor\u2019 Getrude Mutharika, \u2018Dr\u2019 Jean Mathana, \u2018Dr\u2019 Ben Phiri, \u2018Dr\u2019 Ken Zikhale N\u2019goma \u2013 we should sober up and accept that honorary degrees are not fake.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Malawi<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. There are only three acceptable ways through which one can be called \u2018Dr\u2019. One, through studying medicine; two, through triumphing a doctorate class after three to four years of study; and, lastly, being honored by a reputable university for immense personal achievements. So you can be Dr Adamson Muula because you have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":22998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8],"tags":[233,371,228,234],"class_list":["post-22999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-malawi","tag-education","tag-malawi"],"yoast_head":"\nNothing wrong with honorary PhDs, something wrong with \u2018bought\u2019 doctorate degrees - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are only three acceptable ways through which one can be called \u2018Dr\u2019. One, through studying medicine; two, through ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nothing wrong with honorary PhDs, something wrong with \u2018bought\u2019 doctorate degrees\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are only three acceptable ways through which one can be called \u2018Dr\u2019. One, through studying medicine; two, through ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Malawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-17T19:12:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-17T19:33:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2022\/05\/img-6283f8862b0a6.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"546\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Nothing wrong with honorary PhDs, something wrong with \u2018bought\u2019 doctorate degrees\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-17T19:12:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-17T19:33:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees\"},\"wordCount\":452,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2022\/05\/img-6283f8862b0a6.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Malawi\",\"Education\",\"Malawi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees\",\"name\":\"Nothing wrong with honorary PhDs, something wrong with \u2018bought\u2019 doctorate degrees - Malawi\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2022\/05\/img-6283f8862b0a6.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-17T19:12:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-17T19:33:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"There are only three acceptable ways through which one can be called \u2018Dr\u2019. One, through studying medicine; two, through ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2022\/05\/img-6283f8862b0a6.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2022\/05\/img-6283f8862b0a6.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":546,\"caption\":\"Nothing wrong with honorary PhDs, something wrong with \u2018bought\u2019 doctorate degrees\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Nothing wrong with honorary PhDs, something wrong with \u2018bought\u2019 doctorate degrees\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/\",\"name\":\"Malawi\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nothing wrong with honorary PhDs, something wrong with \u2018bought\u2019 doctorate degrees - Malawi","description":"There are only three acceptable ways through which one can be called \u2018Dr\u2019. One, through studying medicine; two, through ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nothing wrong with honorary PhDs, something wrong with \u2018bought\u2019 doctorate degrees","og_description":"There are only three acceptable ways through which one can be called \u2018Dr\u2019. One, through studying medicine; two, through ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees","og_site_name":"Malawi","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-05-17T19:12:46+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-05-17T19:33:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":546,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2022\/05\/img-6283f8862b0a6.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Nothing wrong with honorary PhDs, something wrong with \u2018bought\u2019 doctorate degrees","datePublished":"2022-05-17T19:12:46+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-17T19:33:54+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees"},"wordCount":452,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2022\/05\/img-6283f8862b0a6.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Malawi","Education","Malawi"],"articleSection":["all news","files","homepage-english"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees","name":"Nothing wrong with honorary PhDs, something wrong with \u2018bought\u2019 doctorate degrees - Malawi","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2022\/05\/img-6283f8862b0a6.jpg","datePublished":"2022-05-17T19:12:46+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-17T19:33:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"There are only three acceptable ways through which one can be called \u2018Dr\u2019. One, through studying medicine; two, through ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2022\/05\/img-6283f8862b0a6.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2022\/05\/img-6283f8862b0a6.jpg","width":720,"height":546,"caption":"Nothing wrong with honorary PhDs, something wrong with \u2018bought\u2019 doctorate degrees"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nothing-wrong-with-honorary-phds-something-wrong-with-bought-doctorate-degrees#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Nothing wrong with honorary PhDs, something wrong with \u2018bought\u2019 doctorate degrees"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/","name":"Malawi","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}