Customary Degrees (Ad Eundem Degrees)
See also: List of honorary degreesSome universities and colleges also have the custom of awarding a master's degree to every scholar it appoints as a full professor who had never earned a degree there. At the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge many senior staff are granted the degree of Master of Arts after three years of service, and at Amherst College all tenured professors are awarded a Master of Arts degree at academic convocation in the autumn even though the school only offers an earned Bachelor of Arts degree (Amherst awards honorary doctorates at commencement in the spring to notable scholars and other special invitees). Brown University and Harvard University also awards tenured faculty, who do not have a Brown degree, the AM ad eundem.
These ad eundem degrees are earned degrees, not honorary, because they recognize formal learning.
Similarly a jure dignitatis degree is one awarded to someone who has demonstrated their eminence and scholarship by being appointed to a particular office. Thus, for example, a DD (Doctor of Divinity) might be conferred upon a bishop on the occasion of their consecration, or a judge created LLD (Legum Doctor) or DCL (Doctor of Civil Law) upon their appointment to the bench. These, also, are properly considered substantive rather than honorary degrees.
Read more about this topic: Honorary Degrees, Practical Use
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