Rolfe
Adult human female
Blimey, how the other half lives! So "Dr. Mas" might really have these degrees, if that's all they're worth?new drkitten said:Schools vary. At many schools, it's "relatively" easy to get what we used to call a "staple thesis"; just collect four (or so) semi-related journal articles and bind them as chapters 2-5 of the dissertation. (Chapter 1, of course, is a general introduction to the field, and the conclusion can be anything you want up to and including a recipe for braised duck.) These are more common in the United States than in the UK, in part because you often have much more time, sometimes as much as 10-12 years, to complete the dissertation, and it's much easier to do it part-time. I believe such theses are fairly common in Japanese schools as well.
Similarly, I'm not sure who you think is guarding the "extremely jealously guarded principle that an honorary degree is never a PhD," but a simple search on the phrase "honorary PhD" will find several dozen reasonably reputable universities that are happy to award such.
I was talking about the UK. Last I heard about it, there would have been a mass riot of earned-PhDs if any university here threatened to award an honorary one. Give 'em a DSc or anything you like, just not a PhD. Sort of like you don't get awarded honorary A levels.
Rolfe.