IT is obvious that we have an obsession about academic titles from the “Dr.” to the “Prof.” Sheikh Bakr Abu Zaid (may his soul rest in peace) has a great book on this subject named “Scientific Titles” in which he had strongly criticized the infatuation with the title “Dr.” In the West, this title will only be given to those who have acquired the Ph.D. degree in medicine. Anyone has the right to use his or her academic title as long as it is authentic but the tragedy lies in the use of this title when the degree is forged. Of late, our society was surprised with the large number of bogus degrees obtained from universities no one has heard of before. This tendency shows the fixation of some people about holding scientific and academic titles. In fact many of the holders of high educational degrees whether true of fake may be less learned than ordinary people. Many people have become thinkers and intellectuals without having any scientific title. I followed with great interest the series of articles written by Hamza Al-Muzaini in Alsharq newspaper about the forged degrees and bogus universities. He mentioned the American University in London. When this university was asked about the level of the English language of the applicants it answered that they should know the language of the host country. In the same answer it said applicants were not required to present a certificate to prove the level of their English language. This university claimed that it had a branch in Saudi Arabia. I had said in a previous article that this university had no offices in any town or city in the Kingdom. It does not also have a permanent address. It asked a number of Saudi university staff members to supervise its students in the Kingdom. The most famous of them is Dr. Kamal Salamah Al-Duqus, a former teacher at King Abdulaziz University, who supervised 12 Ph.D thesis in various specializations. When we go back to Al-Nuzaini's articles we will be amazed by the magnitude of the faked degrees in the Kingdom. Those who commit such blatant forgeries should be legally penalized. They should also be publicized in the local media. These forgers have not studied, in the first place, to obtain their academic titles but have also used the easy way out and bought them.
