Honorary degree
An Honorary degree (Latin: honoris causa ad gradum) is a degree awarded to someone by an institution that he or she may have never attended. Usually it is given, amidst great pomp, as a way of honoring some famous or distinguished visitor. Recipients of an honorary doctorate who do not also hold an earned doctorate do not use the title of "doctor".
Honorary degrees are usually awarded at regular graduation ceremonies. Recipients are often required to make a speech of acceptance before the assembled faculty and graduates, which often forms a highlight of the ceremony.
Some universities, however, also have the custom of awarding an honorary master's degree to every scholar it appoints as a full professor who had never earned a degree there, as a way of co-opting him or her as an alumnus.
An ad eundem degree may also be considered a sort of honorary degree.
The first honorary degree was awarded to University of Oxford, he later became Bishop of Salisbury.
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