THE Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has warned about bogus certificates conferring honorary degrees from higher education institutions (HEIs) and other schools without any authorization from the agency.
In a public notice posted over the weekend on its official website, the CHED identified a supposed tertiary school based in the United States and two local schools as the ones giving away the questioned honorary certifications.
“The Commission on Higher Education received information that the International Academy for Leadership and Management (IALM) and its consortium partners, La Sallette Christian College, Inc., and ACTS-Philippines Indigenous People, Inc., have been awarding honorary doctorate degrees or honoris causa in violation of CHED Memorandum Order No. 09, Series of 2021,” the CHED said.
CMO No. 09 or the Revised Policies and Guidelines on the Conferment of Honorary Doctorate Degrees by Higher Education Institutions in the Philippines states that only HEIs who are compliant with two conditionalities may validly award an honorary doctorate degree.
This first condition requires that the awarding institution must have existed or operated for 25 years or longer.
It must also have a “well-acknowledged academic reputation and institutional values and mission” as adjudged by the CHED.
Even HEIs that are compliant with these conditions still need to secure approval from the CHED before conferring an honorary doctorate degree unless they are enjoying autonomous or deregulated states.
Several Facebook pages show IALM supposedly maintaining a “main office” rather than a campus on Northwest 147th Street in the city of Edmond, Oklahoma, USA.
“As IALM is not a higher education institution in the Philippines, and La Sallette Christian is not a CHED-recognized higher education institution, honorary doctorate degrees awarded by IALM and its consortium partners will not be recognized by CHED,” the Commission warned.
This is only the second time that the CHED has called out HEIs and schools for giving out honorary degrees unsanctioned by the agency.
In 2018, it also issued a public notice calling out the Brethren Evangelical School of Theology (BEST) in Gapan, Nueva Ecija for conferring a Ph.D. in Humanities, major in Social Work to a local actor-model.
Citing official records, the CHED said the school has never applied for authority to operate from the Commission and is not recognized as an HEI in the Philippines.
