Datuk Felician Teo
SIBU: The Ministry of Higher Education has been praised for moving to set up a National Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Registry.
Eaton International School CEO Datuk Felician Teo said this was the right move to curb the increasing use of bogus titles.
“These academic titles can now be easily acquired from diploma mills available online from dubious universities around the world. The acquisition of a doctorate degree is a laborious process,” he said in an interview.
“If a person who has no bachelor’s degree claims to have a doctorate, then chances are the doctorate qualification is questionable.” He pointed out that a doctorate takes at least five years to complete and involved extensive research and writing a lengthy dissertation, which must be defended in front of an academic panel, which cannot be done online.
Teo noted that some individuals are conferred honorary doctorates, but said the practice has been to put the initials ‘Dr’ in brackets.
“However, more and more recipients of such awards are using the Dr title without the brackets, thus compounding the confusion. I would therefore suggest that this registry should include recipients of honorary doctorates, who must be placed in a separate category from those who actually earned their doctorates from universities,” he said.
Minister of Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Datuk Fatimah Abdullah had recently warned that those with bogus PhDs could be charged and the state government is looking into claims of fraudulent tertiary titles seriously.
The Ministry of Higher Education will establish the registry through the University and University Colleges Act 1971 (Act 30) and the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act (Act 555).