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Honorary degrees

  • 28-02-2011 5:02pm
    #1
    Naikon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,564 ✭✭✭


    I mean come on, how arbitrary can you get. Donated a large sum to the school? Here, have a duh gree to go with that. For Institutions to award honoury degrees, while claiming to maintain absolute objectivity and fairness, appears to contravene their own academic "laws".


Comments

  • #2
    red menace
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,462 ✭✭✭red menace


    You must not have donated enough


  • #3
    karlog
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,563 ✭✭✭karlog


    Your not doing art's are you? no amount of money will help with that.


  • #4
    Naikon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,564 ✭✭✭Naikon


    I may not have enough for a large donation, but I can certainly dole out the aul thanks.


  • #5
    Lumen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 31,218 ✭✭✭✭Lumen


    karlog wrote: »
    Your not doing art's are you? no amount of money will help with that.

    Might be useful for punctuation though.


  • #6
    Trog
    Closed Accounts Posts: 456 ✭✭Trog


    There was a time when it meant something. Like Ludwig Wittgenstein hadn't gone to college when he pulished his Tractatus (one of the most ingenius books in modern philosophy/logic), and was subsequently given an honorary degree, his book counting as his thesis. There are other examples of them being given out in previous times on merit, but nowadays they're used for colleges to gain publicity and attract foreign students. (Worldwide, not just here).


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  • #7
    red menace
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,462 ✭✭✭red menace


    Naikon wrote: »
    I may not have enough for a large donation, but I can certainly dole out the aul thanks.

    Back at ya!
    It's an honorary thanks though


  • #8
    bnt
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,074 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    How bad can it be? I mean, it's not like they'd give one to Jeremy Clarkson for his contributions to Engineering ... right? :eek:

    You are the type of what the age is searching for, and what it is afraid it has found. I am so glad that you have never done anything, never carved a statue, or painted a picture, or produced anything outside of yourself! Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets.

    ―Oscar Wilde predicting Social Media, in The Picture of Dorian Gray



  • #9
    Kimono-Girl
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,160 ✭✭✭Kimono-Girl


    Naikon wrote: »
    I may not have enough for a large donation, but I can certainly dole out the aul thanks.
    red menace wrote: »
    Back at ya!
    It's an honorary thanks though

    maybe if we dole out enough thanks boards will give us an honorary boards.ie degree!!! :pac: :cool:


  • #10
    Trog
    Closed Accounts Posts: 456 ✭✭Trog


    Kimono-Girl wrote: »
    maybe if we dole out enough thanks boards will give us an honorary boards.ie degree!!! :pac: :cool:

    It'll come with a thumbs up symbol in the corner. You know so you can say
    Fooled you.


  • #11
    Deus Ex Machina
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,556 ✭✭✭Deus Ex Machina


    karlog wrote: »
    Your not doing art's are you? no amount of money will help with that.

    That comment is as excruciating as anything I have seen of late.


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  • #12
    PK2008
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,219 ✭✭✭PK2008


    Dont they normally give honorary degrees to people who have exceled in the field but didn't have any formal qualification- like a guy who leaves school at 15 and becomes a self made millionaire might get an honorary degree over people who have 'mastered' business with an MBA


  • #13
    Odysseus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,754 ✭✭✭Odysseus


    PK2008 wrote: »
    Dont they normally give honorary degrees to people who have exceled in the field but didn't have any formal qualification- like a guy who leaves school at 15 and becomes a self made millionaire might get an honorary degree over people who have 'mastered' business with an MBA

    That would be my understanding, but mostly they are honorary PhD's. Are they not?


  • #14
    ejmaztec
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,229 ✭✭✭✭ejmaztec


    It beats buying one on the internet for $10 with Trinity College Dubai on it.


  • #15
    panda100
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,551 ✭✭✭panda100


    PK2008 wrote: »
    Dont they normally give honorary degrees to people who have exceled in the field but didn't have any formal qualification- like a guy who leaves school at 15 and becomes a self made millionaire might get an honorary degree over people who have 'mastered' business with an MBA

    Bertie Ahern got an honorary doctorate from Queens, honorary degree from Aberdeen,is now a visiting professor in Maynooth, and Id hardly call him excelling in his field.
    Its all a load of bull**** and done purely to gain publicity for the university. It has nothing to do with actually achievement or dedication and everything to do with marketing for the universitys. Honorary degrees seem to be needless back slapping for fat cats and celebrities whose ego's are already super-inflated.

    Though I can see some merit in such as for those who do independent research like the example Trog gave.


  • #16
    indough
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,857 ✭✭✭indough


    yeah after all its not like being elected as Taoiseach is any sort of achievement at all


  • #17
    Killer Pigeon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,132 ✭✭✭Killer Pigeon


    panda100 wrote: »
    Bertie Ahern got an honorary doctorate from Queens, honorary degree from Aberdeen,is now a visiting professor in Maynooth, and Id hardly call him excelling in his field.
    Its all a load of bull**** and done purely to gain publicity for the university. It has nothing to do with actually achievement or dedication and everything to do with marketing for the universitys. Honorary degrees seem to be needless back slapping for fat cats and celebrities whose ego's are already super-inflated.

    Though I can see some merit in such as for those who do independent research like the example Trog gave.

    All of that and he doesn't even have the record of a bachelor's or master's degree to his name ...


  • #18
    Killer Pigeon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,132 ✭✭✭Killer Pigeon


    indough wrote: »
    yeah after all its not like being elected as Taoiseach is any sort of achievement at all

    It's unfortunate that lying and dishonesty are regarded as achievements nowadays ... *sigh*.


  • #19
    pablomakaveli
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,752 ✭✭✭pablomakaveli


    Roy Keane was given a Doctorate of Laws by UCC. Ok he is one of irelands greatest players but it still is taking the piss.


  • #20
    indough
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,857 ✭✭✭indough


    Killer Pigeon wrote: »
    It's unfortunate that lying and dishonesty are regarded as achievements nowadays ... *sigh*.

    who said they were?

    anyone who thinks that becoming taoiseach doesnt qualify as an achievement seriously needs to re-evaluate their understanding of the word


  • #21
    panda100
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,551 ✭✭✭panda100


    indough wrote: »
    yeah after all its not like being elected as Taoiseach is any sort of achievement at all

    People deserve a phd when they have made a significant contribution to their particular academic field, not because they happen to be a politician who was elected leader of a party. No wonder degrees are no longer worth the paper they're written on.


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  • #22
    Killer Pigeon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,132 ✭✭✭Killer Pigeon


    indough wrote: »
    who said they were?

    anyone who thinks that becoming taoiseach doesnt qualify as an achievement seriously needs to re-evaluate their understanding of the word

    I was speaking in terms of Bertie Ahern.


  • #23
    Trog
    Closed Accounts Posts: 456 ✭✭Trog


    Some are deserved, some are ridiculous. If Bertie's honorary degrees were in PR, or Politics (I'm assuming they were given before all the criminality became apparent), then it makes sense. He did excel in those fields before the country hit the dogs.

    But Clarkson getting an Engineering degree? I suppose you couldn't give him one for journalism though...


  • #24
    Dionysus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,420 ✭✭✭Dionysus


    Trog wrote: »
    There was a time when it meant something. Like Ludwig Wittgenstein hadn't gone to college when he pulished his Tractatus (one of the most ingenius books in modern philosophy/logic), and was subsequently given an honorary degree, his book counting as his thesis. There are other examples of them being given out in previous times on merit, but nowadays they're used for colleges to gain publicity and attract foreign students. (Worldwide, not just here).

    You can still get that. In many universities a person who has published for years but does not hold a PhD is awarded a DLitt later on in their career. Professor John Coakley of UCD's School of Politics, who co-wrote Politics in the Republic of Ireland, one of the most seminal accounts from political scientists on Irish politics, didn't have a PhD but he received a DLitt a few years ago in recognition of his lifetime of academic publications.

    DLitt explained


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