Doctorate / Validation of Experience and the Misuse of Honoris Causa: An Insult to Scientific Thought and Collective Intelligence

Dr. Serge Philippe Pierre (Ph.D.)

Last weekend, a graduation ceremony was organized during which the title of DOCTOR (Ph.D.) was awarded to citizens, simply through the validation of prior learning and experience, a practice that does not exist anywhere in the world. The online newspaper Métronome (Radio Télé Metronome) cried foul, strongly sounding the alarm: « Some believe that the interim government, via the MENFP, must react urgently in this matter to bring order to this cacophony. If this intervention is not made, it will be the end of the Haitian diploma, » read a tweet from Métronome, a statement considered a cry of distress, a cry of maximum alert. Indeed, the government acted with vigor and swiftness, through the Ministry of National Education. Bravo.

May I remind you, from the outset, that in the global academic universe, the value and strength of a doctoral degree stem from the ultimate recognition of intellectual effort, methodological rigor, scientific innovation, and research ethics. Obtaining this title requires years of diligent reading, incessant doubts, proven methodologies, and original contributions to the body of knowledge. It is a long, winding, and exhausting journey that cannot under any circumstances be reduced to a simple administrative process or a hasty validation of professional experience. However, in Haiti, a disturbing reality is tarnishing the prestige of higher education and casting deep discredit on the very value of knowledge: the existence of so-called university institutions that engage in practices contrary to the law, by offering doctoral degrees through the recognition and validation of prior learning and experience, even though Haitian legislation, voted by parliament and published on February 15, 2019, explicitly prohibits such practices for bachelor's, master's, and doctoral cycles. This discrepancy between the official normative framework and the actions of certain institutions constitutes an alarm for society as a whole, as it compromises not only the future of student youth but also the country's credibility in the face of international standards for the production and transmission of knowledge.

The doctorate is not an honorary artifice (such as the case of Honoris Causa), nor a distinction granted to flatter an ego or sanctify a professional career. It is the culmination of a demanding educational process that not only certifies competence or experience but also validates research capability, a contribution to universal science, and an aptitude for opening new avenues in a given disciplinary field. By attempting to substitute this rigor with the recognition of prior learning and experience, one not only tramples on the epistemological foundation upon which the university rests but also contributes to a dangerous trivialization of knowledge. The 2019 law, by explicitly prohibiting these practices, aimed to safeguard the academic domain and preserve the value of university degrees, while preventing their commodification. However, what we observe is a deviation: professional achievements, while respectable and useful, are disguised as equivalents of doctoral research, and diplomas become objects of transaction where field experience fraudulently substitutes for scientific innovation.