It's about this time of year that the people who decide these things start finalising the New Years Honours list as hundreds of celebrities prepare to receive their OBE's MBE's and Knighthoods.
Why these honours are dished out to actors, singers, musicians and successful businessmen who have spent their lives doing what they want to do and being paid extremely well for doing it i have never really understood.
Even worse but along the same theme is the University Honourary Degree system where Degrees are handed to people outside of academia which really does stick in my craw.
I do understand the 'celebrity splash at the graduation ceremony' angle but what a slap in the face to those poor students who spend years paying extortionate tuition fees, studying all hours for years, the anxiety of exams often in a state of near poverty only to see someone who has done any of these things swan in and pick up the same award as you.
Graduates pay dearly for their degrees, both financially and mentally and it cheapens the achievement when universities hand out degrees and even more when the celebrity then uses the honourary title given to them and put Doctor in front of their name.
I strongly dislike the Honours List, the British Empire part of it especially, but I fundamentally disagree with the practise of handing out Honourary Degrees to celebrities. If they want a degree that bad then they should go to university, put in the years of study and earn it.
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