Abolish honorary degrees?

People who are awarded honorary doctorates by good universities are people who have achieved a lot more than any person with a doctorate could only dream of, and do not normally boost their status - is HM The Queen receiving a Doctor of Civil Law degree of University of Oxford going to boost her status? Is Dr The Hon Louis Cha OBE, the biggest-selling living Chinese author (more than 100 million official copies sold on the strength of just 14 novels in traditional Chinese) and co-founder and first editor-in-chief of an iconic paper, receiving an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree from University of Cambridge going to mislead the public on anything (he later read for an MPhil and PhD from Cambridge, and an additional PhD from Peking University anyway)?
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This is largely nonsense, most people with honorary degrees are not the Queen or Louis Cha. Many are just generic high level business people/artists/etc that 99.99% people won't have heard of, and the degree obviously boosts their status.

For example:

http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/student-administration/graduations/honorary/future-honorary-grads
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/alumni/ouralumni/hongrads/

Can you just point to me who exactly do you think did not deserve it?

Just by skimming through the lists, they are mostly professors or knights or peers or obviously accomplished persons in their fields.

Also, the title here says to 'abolish' them, meaning people like Louis Cha would not be recognised.

Can you just point to me who exactly do you think did not deserve it?

Just by skimming through the lists, they are mostly professors or knights or peers or obviously accomplished persons in their fields.

Also, the title here says to 'abolish' them, meaning people like Louis Cha would not be recognised.

From a week or two ago:

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6502202/kanye-west-to-receive-honorary-doctorate

http://tab.co.uk/2013/07/30/the-worst-honorary-graduates/

Savile received his doctorate at a time when his behaviour was certainly at the reasonable suspicion stage.

Also, what on earth did he do to contribute to the academic field of law?

And you think Kanye West doesn't deserve an honorary doctorate in art from an art college, how?

Regardless of what you personally think of his music, he's moved 21 million copies of albums and 100 million copies of singles world-wide as a hip-hop artist peaking after the hip-hop peak in the States, won 21 Grammy awards, and has multiple albums considered some of the best albums of all-time. This is not considering his extensive production of music and other entertainment and cultural influences.

How is he pale compared to any average PhD in art/music from any university?

Also, what on earth did he do to contribute to the academic field of law?

But that's the point - honorary degrees are not for contributions to academia. They're a nice, easy, cheap way for a university to provide recognition to someone, often with with a local connection, who has made some significant achievement(s). The post nominals usually (always?) make the distinction between academic and honorary awards. No-one uses them in real life so the idea to get rid of them would be a waste of time, IMO.

I don't contest what he's achieved, but he didn't get it because of the value of his art. He got it because he's a famous celebrity.

It's not because I hate Kanye West I say this, but often these things are just publicity stunts for the university. I don't condemn that either necessarily, but certainly a fair few students at that university thought it somewhat cheapened their education, and I can see the point of view.

Real-life and academia are related. What you have achieved real-life can and do have significance in the academic world.

You're right, they are usually required to state that they are honorary, and they also have a different rule when listing them in an order. Not to mention degrees which are granted honorarily are usually not the degrees you can actually study for. Doctor of Laws is not an actual degree at any university.

He was the first and last presenter of the now iconic Top of the Pops programme, raised £40 for charities, among many other things. Among his honours and awards, an honorary degree is not even one of the brightest ones.

You're also acting as if the degrees, which have now been revoked, were awarded due to his raping people. They were given to recognise his achievements. There would be absolutely no difference if he or anyone was to read for a doctorate for three years - said university would still be granting the degree should that person meets the academic standards of the course.

Are u sure

By 'real life' I'm talking about 'someone's activities which are carried out while not studying for a degree'.

You'll find that Cambridge awards the LLD.

How is it fair that people, with no prior academic experience, can receive an honorary degree (including a doctorate) without having putting the hard work in that regular students have?

This is particularly distasteful when recipients are awarded honorary degrees because they are, basically, celebrities or have donated a large sum to a university.

The only time I would be in favour of an honorary degree is for academics or researchers (with existing academic qualifications) who have made significant achievements in their academic field, and a university wishes to honour them for that.

It's also really misleading. I have seen some recipients insist on being called 'Doctor' and carry on their business or work under the appearance of them being a 'Doctor'. This misleads the public about their qualifications, especially if they have no further academic credentials and a member of the public thinks they are getting a higher level of expertise due to the title.

So, I say abolish honorary degrees, or at least restrict their use and ban people from calling themselves 'Doctor' in a misleading way.