Vicky Bright has cautioned people against the usage of honorary doctoral titles
A former Deputy Minister of State cum legal expert, Vicky Bright, has taken a swipe at individuals who confer ‘fake’ honorary doctoral and professorial titles on themselves without legitimately earning such distinctions through proper academic or professional work.
According to her, such actions do not portray the country as serious and, consequently, render these practices unlawful.
Sharing her views on the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission’s (GTEC) final warning to individuals misusing honorary academic titles, Vicky Bright expressed concern over how these prestigious titles, once highly revered and not easily earned are being cheapened by some ambitious individuals.
She noted that people who attend summer school or short courses at prestigious international institutions often exaggerate their credentials by padding their CVs and falsely claiming to be alumni of those institutions, when in reality, they are not.
Vicky Bright cautioned individuals engaged in such practices to desist, advising them to properly enroll in accredited institutions if they wish to legitimately earn honorary titles.
“It’s like those who go to summer schools in Harvard, Oxford, and whatever and then you see Harvard on their CV, claiming to be alumni. Come on, let’s be serious in this country. You just went on a three-week program in Harvard.
“You are not regular alumni so stop it. People should stop passing themselves off as something. If you want to go to Harvard, go and enroll. If you want to go to Oxford, go and enroll or Cambridge, but don’t go to a summer school and carry yourself as an alumni,” she said.
Bright’s remarks comes on the back of GTEC’s warning threatening to name and shame individuals using honorary doctorates and professorships.
In its statement, GTEC specifically warned politicians, business people, and men and women of God to refrain from publicly using such titles, describing the practice as ‘deceitful, unethical, and damaging to the integrity of the higher education system, as well as to the value of genuine doctoral education and the promotion of professionalism within universities.’
“The Commission would, from now onwards, in addition to naming and shaming of those individuals who are found to have flouted the GTEC directives, take legal action against them,” a statement from GTEC dated May 30, 2025, said.
MAG/AE
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