Honorary Degrees: A Medieval Invention That Still Shapes Academia

The honoris causa award is older than most modern institutions. Its medieval origins explain a great deal about how universities use it today.

Selection is usually a serious institutional process. Committees solicit nominations, verify achievements, consider how the candidate reflects the institution’s mission, and debate the public message each award sends. Reputable universities weigh honorary awards carefully precisely because the degree says as much about the awarding institution as about its recipient.

The ceremony borrows the full symbolism of academia. Recipients wear the same academic dress as earned graduates, receive a diploma inscribed with honoris causa, and often deliver a commencement address. The theatrical continuity is intentional: it places the honouree inside the institution’s history for a day, while the inscribed caveat keeps the academic boundary intact.

The Latin phrase honoris causa — for the sake of honour — carries the essential philosophy. The degree is conferred to honour a person’s contribution to society, the arts, sciences or the institution itself. It explicitly does not certify that the recipient has completed a programme of study, passed examinations or produced original research, and every serious awarding body says so in its statutes.

The practice of awarding honorary degrees reaches back to the medieval universities of Europe. As institutions such as Bologna, Paris and Oxford formalised their degree structures in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, they also developed the habit of granting the insignia of a degree without requiring the candidate to complete the usual course of study — a gesture of respect rather than an academic judgement.

An honorary award is a public statement of values. When the criteria are transparent and the recipient deserving, the honour enriches both sides — and cannot be bought.