Mudiwa Hood Disowns Bogus Honorary Doctorate
Musician and businessman Mudiwa Hood has disowned an honorary doctorate awarded by the International Institute of Philanthropy (IIP).
This comes after the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZIMCHE) said IIP is not authorised to award degrees in Zimbabwe as it is not a registered higher education institution.
In a post on social media, Hood said he declined the honorary PhD when it was initially offered in 2023, but IIP came back early this month saying the offer was to recognise his humanitarian work and philanthropy. He wrote:
I was recently approached and offered an honorary degree for my efforts in humanitarian work and philanthropy.
Initially, I declined the offer in May 2023, but by March 2024, it was emphasized that the recognition was due to my actual contributions, not academic achievements – they were clear, it wasn’t a PhD.
The issue was further complicated when ZimCHE noted that the awarding organization wasn’t registered with them. As a result, I’ve distanced myself from this honour.
Despite this situation, NOTHING CHANGES. I’ve never claimed the title ‘Doctor’, adhering to my principle of earning the title through completing my PhD.
Last week, ZIMCHE said IIP is awarding several honourary degrees in violation of section 75(3) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Act, 2013 as read with section 10(1) of the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education Act (Chapter 25:27).
It also ordered IIP to publicly withdraw all awarded degrees and inform all recipients accordingly.