At last, somebody is taking on the honorary-degree scam:

ONE of Scotland’s most prestigious universities is cracking down on the abuse of honorary degrees amid growing concern over awards held by celebrities, serving politicians, “serial” degree collectors, and unsavoury characters. Edinburgh University is even planning to introduce unprecedented powers to strip honorary degree holders of their titles, with Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe believed to be top of the target list. … Other moves to be examined include: • Stopping the award of degrees to people who have already collected large numbers of awards. • Banning serving politicians from receiving awards. Chancellor Gordon Brown received a degree from Edinburgh in 2004. • Giving serious consideration to whether degrees should be awarded to nominees from countries with poor human rights records. • Greater scrutiny at the nomination stage between the degree committee and the university senate which rubber stamps awards. The papers reveal that two nominations were recently withdrawn amid “unwelcome publicity”. One senior source at the university said: “This process to allow honorary degrees to be removed has already started and it is a good thing. It’s a very positive development. I just wish there was something said against awarding degrees to celebrities.”

(Via IHE.)