<p class="bodytext">Former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's decision to decline an honorary doctorate from Haveri University is a rare assertion of principle in a system that has steadily devalued academic honours. His reasoning is clear: public service is not a credential to be decorated, and honorary doctorates must be reserved for exceptional, lifelong contributions in a defined field. Such restraint stands in sharp contrast to the prevailing culture across Karnataka’s universities, where honorary doctorates are handed out with troubling ease. Institutions that ought to be citadels of scholarship have, in effect, turned into dispensing counters often rewarding proximity and patronage over real merit. The Karnataka State Universities Act permits such degrees only in “exceptional cases” of “eminent attainment” or “conspicuous service,” and not as a matter of course.</p>.<p class="bodytext">However, recent events point to a collapse of this meritocracy. At the Karnataka State Open University, the unilateral finalisation of eight names by the Vice-Chancellor triggered a boycott of the convocation by some members of the Board of Management. At the Mangaluru University, an inflated list was forwarded to the Chancellor, bypassing the Syndicate. Honorary doctorates are now distributed as institutional largesse to actors, hoteliers, businessmen, seers, and politicians, with little evidence of rigorous scrutiny. The practice of conferring awards in bulk has reduced universities to doctorate-churning factories, stripping the honour of both meaning and value. Vice-chancellors using these titles to gain proximity to power are not aberrations but symptoms of a deeper malaise. Worse, this casual proliferation actively undermines those who have earned their doctorates through years of painstaking research, intellectual rigour, and peer review. The obsession with these honours is driven largely by the allure of the “Dr” prefix. While there is no explicit legal bar in India, the University Grants Commission is categorical that an honorary degree is a distinction, not an academic qualification. In the United Kingdom and the United States, recipients rarely use the title in professional contexts.</p>.The world pays for the wealth of a few.<p class="bodytext">The Governor and Chancellor, Thaawarchand Gehlot, remains the ultimate gatekeeper. While he has occasionally exercised restraint, the system remains porous and demands far firmer oversight. In this context, Higher Education Minister M C Sudhakar’s proposal to constitute an expert committee to frame uniform guidelines is both timely and necessary. Standardised criteria, transparent evaluation, and independent scrutiny can restore credibility to a system that is perilously close to being trivialised. A doctorate should be a testament to rigorous intellectual labour or a lifetime of selfless service, not a vanity plate for the well-connected.</p>
<p class="bodytext">Former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's decision to decline an honorary doctorate from Haveri University is a rare assertion of principle in a system that has steadily devalued academic honours. His reasoning is clear: public service is not a credential to be decorated, and honorary doctorates must be reserved for exceptional, lifelong contributions in a defined field. Such restraint stands in sharp contrast to the prevailing culture across Karnataka’s universities, where honorary doctorates are handed out with troubling ease. Institutions that ought to be citadels of scholarship have, in effect, turned into dispensing counters often rewarding proximity and patronage over real merit. The Karnataka State Universities Act permits such degrees only in “exceptional cases” of “eminent attainment” or “conspicuous service,” and not as a matter of course.</p>.<p class="bodytext">However, recent events point to a collapse of this meritocracy. At the Karnataka State Open University, the unilateral finalisation of eight names by the Vice-Chancellor triggered a boycott of the convocation by some members of the Board of Management. At the Mangaluru University, an inflated list was forwarded to the Chancellor, bypassing the Syndicate. Honorary doctorates are now distributed as institutional largesse to actors, hoteliers, businessmen, seers, and politicians, with little evidence of rigorous scrutiny. The practice of conferring awards in bulk has reduced universities to doctorate-churning factories, stripping the honour of both meaning and value. Vice-chancellors using these titles to gain proximity to power are not aberrations but symptoms of a deeper malaise. Worse, this casual proliferation actively undermines those who have earned their doctorates through years of painstaking research, intellectual rigour, and peer review. The obsession with these honours is driven largely by the allure of the “Dr” prefix. While there is no explicit legal bar in India, the University Grants Commission is categorical that an honorary degree is a distinction, not an academic qualification. In the United Kingdom and the United States, recipients rarely use the title in professional contexts.</p>.The world pays for the wealth of a few.<p class="bodytext">The Governor and Chancellor, Thaawarchand Gehlot, remains the ultimate gatekeeper. While he has occasionally exercised restraint, the system remains porous and demands far firmer oversight. In this context, Higher Education Minister M C Sudhakar’s proposal to constitute an expert committee to frame uniform guidelines is both timely and necessary. Standardised criteria, transparent evaluation, and independent scrutiny can restore credibility to a system that is perilously close to being trivialised. A doctorate should be a testament to rigorous intellectual labour or a lifetime of selfless service, not a vanity plate for the well-connected.</p>
