These aren't purchased. And being awarded one of these is not a shame. I think the point that he made is completely different.

Original comment for this sub-thread

>"I'm familiar with a handful of PhD holders who didn't even attend the University that granted it."

"Like this?" I asked. The parent comment was vague and my enquiry was, in part, to ascertain whether the commenter was referring to those who get degrees by being rich and|or famous or whether he was referring to direct purchase.

Now he has expanded on his point my question is largely moot but the comment stands to point out that there is another class of individuals given degrees that didn't earn them (by fulfilling _academic_ requirements).

I found it annoying at graduation that some people being given degrees by my Uni simply because those people were doing their [highly paid] job (being actors, sportsmen, politicians, company directors, etc.).

A bit pointless, perhaps, but overall unrelated to the value of your degree, since "honorary" degrees in almost all cases explicitly state that they confer none of the meaning or credentials of an equivalent real degree.

It's just cheap PR for the University.

If the degree certificate is worth anything (debatable) then it should be reserved for those who gain it. Either it's worth nothing, in which case why give it, or it's worth something and should be reserved for those who have fulfilled the academic requirements.

Instead of handing out degree certs they should work out some other system to brown-nose "celebrities".

> Instead of handing out degree certs they should work out some other system to brown-nose "celebrities".

But they already have. They don't hand out "degree certs" to celebrities. They hand out something entirely different: Honorary Degrees. These are completely different, in look and meaning, from actual academic degrees. Celebrities are not being given real PhDs. A "Doctor of Laws, honoris causa" is not the same as J.S.D. You'd get laughed out of every meeting on the planet if you tried to pretend your honorary doctorate was even remotely the same thing as a real academic certificate.

In the same way that Monopoly Money doesn't devalue real money, Honorary Degrees do not devalue degree certificates, because they are an entirely different item that simply happen to share a word in common.

Not in all cases. Universities like Cambridge don't need PR.