Honorary doctorates can be as off-putting as the bogus variety

A SENIOR editor once said to me: “Do you know, I have no qualifications?” I have all the degrees I could get in my field, but only a person who does not have them thinks they are so important.

On learning that I had a doctorate the editor apologised for changing a reference to me in a letter because he thought the letter-writer was “taking the piss” when he referred to me as ‘Dr’ Dwyer.

In reality anybody can call himself or herself ‘Dr’. What people are not entitled to do is to put the degree letters after their name unless the degree has been conferred. If people conferred with an honorary doctorate use the letters after their name, they are supposed to indicate that it is an honorary degree, which they often do in Latin.