4 Times World SBK Champion today received an Honorary Doctorate from the Ulster University. Great achievement for Dr Rea and the sport.
Have to be honest, I've never got the honorary doctorate thing. I'm taking nothing from Jonahthons' achievements, but should Stephen Hawking be an honorary winner on sports personality of the year? I've some very successful pals that never went to uni, but I don't think they'd want or need an honorary doctorate...maybe it's a lovely lunch..
One of the greatest 20th century automotive engineers, Ferdinand Porsche, never attained a university degree, except that in 1916 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Vienna University of Technology, and in 1924 he received another honorary doctorate from Stuttgart Technical University. He was so proud of these honorary degrees that when he founded his firm in 1931 he named it "Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH". The abbreviation means Doktor Ingenieur Honoris Causa ... Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung ("Honorary Doctor of Engineering Ferdinand Porsche Co Ltd ").
Not worth taking that much, if any, notice of IMHO, hardly warrants any 'airtime', whomever the recipient is. Quite simply a token and largely irrelevant gesture and I've not got anything against Mr. R, by the way.