PROF HOLLIS “CHALKDUST” LIVERPOOL
WHEN FORMER judge Anthony Carmona became president of Trinidad and Tobago and consequently assumed the chancellorship of the University of TT, at the university’s graduation ceremony one year, he whispered into the ears of all the graduates who had completed their master’s degree in Carnival studies: “Go now and get your doctorate.”
A committed few of them have since made the attempt to do so, but a confused number of the graduating cohort approached me recently with a contorted view: “Why must we spend years to read for a doctorate when government is handing out doctoral awards freely in bundles to artists and businessmen every year on Republic Day.”
They went on to say that people like deceased Lord Superior, Roy Cape and Black Stalin have never even entered the door of a secondary school, and yet government has bathed them with doctorates. Worse, UTT has given ordinary citizens who have never even read a lawbook on TT doctorates in law and extended doctorates in business and science to orphanage graduates and countless other institutions, for selling four-corner cake and solo sweet drinks.
For the record, readers must know that accredited universities such as UWI, UTT, Howard, Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge (to name a few) give to their graduates at the first level bachelor’s degrees in science, maths and the humanities, or in whatever area the student studied. They are then considered to hold undergrad degrees such as a BA or a BSc. Those whose work have not attained the level of a four-year degree are usually awarded certificates or diplomas.
There are, too, many accredited community colleges and universities that award associate degrees to students whose work extends to less than the normal 120-degree credits, or whose tenure at the institution is limited to a two-year study.
Note, reader, that an MD in medicine (medical doctor) and a JD in law (juris doctor) are both first-level, professional, undergrad degrees, although many a medical doctor in TT loves to put up their first degrees on their office walls to attract clients and unsuspecting people, especially those who cannot afford to pay a large sum to correct their health issues.
When students graduate from a postgraduate or second-level study, they are usually awarded master’s degrees. Accredited universities therefore grant master’s degrees to students whose work extended to periods of time beyond the three or four-year undergraduate, first-degree level. Such students graduate with postgraduate degrees such as an MA, MBA, MSc, and MS.
Normally, however, any study, certificate, or diploma where the field of study is beyond the undergraduate (bachelor's) level, such as accountancy, dentistry, finance or a DipEd (Diploma in Education) is yet considered to be postgraduate.
Holders of a DMD (Doctor of Dental Medicine), for example, have completed at least four years of post-graduate work but are not considered holders of doctorates. When, then, a student completes his or her undergraduate, first-level stud
