Re:Why Do Colleges Give Honorary Degrees?
by pluma on Wednesday August 26, 2015 @08:02AM
(#10122322)
For anyone else unfamiliar with the term "red brick":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_brick_university
> Red brick university (or redbrick university) is a term originally used to refer to six civic universities founded in the major industrial cities of England. The term is now used more broadly to refer to British universities founded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in major cities. All of the six original redbrick institutions, or their predecessor institutes, gained university status before World War I and were initially established as civic science or engineering colleges.
i.e. "old" universities
The local Universities in my city award honorary degrees to College principles who sometimes don't have advanced degrees or indeed undergraduate degrees. Further Education colleges have a vocational focus here and people can come up via the vocational route, although that is rare now. The main reason for the award was so the Principal has a funny hat and cloak to wear at graduation time. No-one uses the actual title.