Beyond academia: the politics of international honorary degrees and elite recognition in Tanzania

This study explores the politics of international honorary degrees in Tanzania, focusing mainly on (a) the policy and regulatory frameworks governing their conferment and (b) the motives associated with non-academic global organisations and elite recipients. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic capital and symbolic power, the study employed documentary review and elite interviews with 10 Tanzanian Members of Parliament (MPs) to generate data. Documentary and public textual sources were analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), while interview data were analysed thematically. The findings highlight the limitations of existing laws and regulations in addressing emerging enforcement gaps, as well as the complex interplay of institutional and individual motives. The findings further show that personal interests and reciprocal exchanges of sociopolitical and economic capital between foreign non-academic conferring bodies and recipients often drive the conferment of honorary degrees. The study concludes by underscoring the need for comprehensive and enforceable policy frameworks to regulate the conferment of honorary degrees by unaccredited foreign institutions in Tanzania and to safeguard their symbolic and academic value amid evolving local and global dynamics.