By Stephanie Milsom — February 2, 2012

As of last week, the University can now hold to its name four new doctors: Lyce Douset, Dr Thomas Brewer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, and Sir Mark Walport. Honorary doctors, I should point out, are ‘doctors’ who have not slogged for a PhD or equivalent at this university.

They are becoming something of a trend these days, especially among celebrities, which raises a few questions: what the hell is an ‘honorary’ doctorate? And what’s the point?

Essentially, it’s an acknowledgement of success and achievement. In the case of York, three scientists who have dedicated their life to extensive research in their respective fields, and one news reporter who has spent years reporting in war-torn states such as Afghanistan, Iran and Jerusalem. She has more balls than me.

On the other hand, Kim Cattrall and Orlando Bloom have been awarded honorary degrees by other universities because they grew up in a particular city.

Of course, generally, honorary doctorates are awarded to worthy candidates. The title qualifies the holder to teach in that specific field – so it’s extremely beneficial to have such giants as potential lecturers, so that they can impart their wisdom and experience onto our eager students.

I can’t help wondering though, if this is the only motivation for universities to award these doctorates. There’s no denying that each time one is awarded, the university in question benefits from extensive publicity. Take Dr Brewer, for example. According to the University’s website, Dr Brewer’s support of York’s bid to “improve the supply of a key anti-malaria drug through molecular breeding” resulted in a huge flow of research funding from the Government. Perhaps, then, ‘doing a good service to the University’ could be translated as ‘raking in loads of cash’. Without this money, the Science Departments would be considerably worse off, so I can’t complain too much, as I would like my University to be worthy of some recognition. And, of course, Dr Brewer ought to be thanked most graciously for his help.

But perhaps the crux of the problem is that we should recognise achievement and reward help in a different way; for example, UCLA have suspended their bestowing of honorary degrees and doctorates in place of the ‘UCLA Medal’. Maybe something similar would be a more fitting recompense, and it would retain the integrity of those doctorates that have been realised through hard graft. Universities should promote themselves as centres for academic achievement, not collections of celebrity.