University refuses to award honorary degree to Saudi king

The council of Ez-Zitouna University in Tunis apparently rejected a request from the Tunisian presidency to bestow an honorary doctorate on King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia in what has been described as a sign of the university’s independence and resistance to potential manipulation.

A 30 March statement published on the official facebook page of the university’s president, Hichem Grissa, said: "The Ez-Zitouna University distanced itself from all political strife, and its refusal to award an honorary doctorate was not hostile to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia… Rather, we want this university to remain loyal to its scientific mission."

The award of the honorary degree to the Saudi king by Ez-Zitouna was reportedly due to be made during his attendance at the 30th Arab League Summit on 31 March in the Tunisian capital of Tunis.

In a 26 March news report, Grissa was quoted as saying the university had not been subjected to any pressure from the Tunisian presidency, following its refusal on the basis that the university “grants degree certificates only to scholars".

However, on 30 March, Noureddine Ben Ticha, political adviser to the Tunisian president, told a Tunisian radio station the presidency had not asked Ez-Zitouna University to grant the Saudi king an honorary doctorate.

On the same day it was reported by the Tunisian Higher Education and Scientific Research Ministry that another Tunisian university, the University of Kairouan, awarded an honorary doctorate to King Salman of Saudi Arabia for his services to Kairouan city.

The Ez-Zitouna case is unusual among universities in North Africa.

"To my knowledge, this is the first case of an Arab university refusing to award an honorary degree to an Arab king or president in power which demonstrates its independent governance and management as well as its strong resistance to manipulation by the state for political and economic gains," higher education, science and technology expert Magdi Tawfik Abdelhamid told University World News.

Beyond Tunisia

In the past several honorary doctorates have been awarded to sitting heads of state by universities in the region.

In April 2016, Cairo University conferred an honorary doctorate on Saudi King Salman in recognition of his outstanding contributions in “serving Arabism, Islam and Muslims, his support to Egypt and its people, and a remarkable role in boosting Cairo University”.

Saudi Arabia gave Egypt’s government US$250 million for the King Salman University in El Tor city in South Sinai governorate which is now under construction and due to commence classes in 2019, according to a May 2018 news report.

The number of recipients of honorary doctorates from Cairo University from 1910 to 2010 totals 87, 19 of which were awarded to presidents of countries such as Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania and Zambia, according to the university’s website.

However, there are also signs of resistance to the practice.

In 2010, a group of Cairo University professors protested the honorary doctorate in philosophy and economics awarded that year to Suzanne Mubarak, wife of Hosni Mubarak, who at the time was Egypt’s president. Suzanne Mubarak was also awarded an honorary doctorate in 1999 from the American University in Cairo, according to the university’s website.

In 2011, Khartoum University in Sudan revoked the honorary doctorate awarded to former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 1996. The university’s action encouraged non-governmental organisation Change.org to start an online petition calling for the revocation of honorary PhDs to Gaddafi by 14 universities in Libya, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, Gabon, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Belarus, Iraq and Serbia.

Guidelines

The awarding of honorary doctorates to sitting Arab presidents by universities raises questions about the need for institutional guidelines to protect the integrity and status of the academy.

Anouar Majid, a Moroccan higher education expert and vice-president for global affairs at the University of New England, told University World News there was a need for “due diligence”, thorough research and an assessment of values when it came to choosing a candidate for an honorary degree.

"No process is error-proof, of course, but a university needs to try its best," Majid said.

Egyptian scientist Farouk El-Baz, director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University in the United States and holder of several honorary doctorates, took a different view, telling University World News it was unnecessary to control the practice “since all the factors are historically well-known".

"Most academic institutions have their own guidelines that are approved by a board of trustees,” said El-Baz, who is also a member of the Presidential Advisory Council for Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

"We all know that a doctoral degree for a researcher [graduate student] is vastly different from an honorary degree.

"I see no need to establish worldwide rules based on a few bad decisions in the past. I am for letting academia set its own rules as was done for hundreds of years."