Honorary doctorates boldly go where no doctorate has gone before

by Ben Sowter

Widespread coverage in Canada regarding McGill University awarding William \"Captain Kirk\" Shatner with an honorary doctorate. Here he gives a pretty respectable acceptance speech, and this award may be well justified - after all this man has saved mankind on several occasions, but it did pique my curiosity as to other honorary doctorate recipients that perhaps may or may not be so deserving.

Other honorary doctorates and degrees awarded:

• The BeeGees (University of Manchester)
• Bob Dylan (University of St Andrews and Princeton University)
• Slade (University of Wolverhampton)
• Arsene Wenger (London Metropolitan University)
• Jack Charlton (University of Leeds)
• Pierluigi Collina (University of Hull)
• Alex Ferguson (University of Manchester)
• J.K. Rowling (University of Edinburgh)
• Bill Bryson (Durham University)
• Robert Mugabe (University of Edinburgh) - later rescinded
• Kermit the Frog (Southampton College, now part of Stony Brook University)
• George W. Bush (Yale University)
• Terry Wogan (University of Limerick)
• Kim Cattrall (Liverpool John Moores University)
• Arnold Palmer (University of St Andrews)
• Billy Connolly (Nottingham Trent University)
• Dame Judi Dench (Nottingham Trent University)
• Denzel Washington (University of Pennsylvania)
• Orlando Bloom (University of Kent)
• Paul O'Grady (De Montfort University)
• Geoffrey Boycott (Leeds Metropolitan University)
• Stephen Fry (Anglia Ruskin University)
• Jeremy Clarkson (Oxford Brookes University)
• Stephen Colbert (Northwestern University)
• Jon Bon Jovi (Monmouth University)
• Dolly Parton (University of Tennessee)
• Tom Selleck (Pepperdine University)
• Mike Tyson (Central State University)

Of course, figures such as Nelson Mandela and Arshbishop Tutu have many honours - 56 was an estimate I came across for Mandela. Richard and David Attenborough have over 50 between them. A few Google searches and it becomes clear that a lot of such degrees have been awarded down the years - often perhaps as a PR exercise for the university and/or celebrity on question. I particularly liked the defence of Kermit the Frog's award with the university claiming that his song \"It's not easy being green\" had become the anthem for the environmental movement and as a result the award was conferred in recognition of efforts in the area of environmentalism.

If anyone has heard of any other entertaining selections... post a comment.