It was interesting to read that the proposal to award an honorary degree to the outgoing chief executive of AIB has been withdrawn. Irish Times front page on 15th March.
One Senate member wrote to the (NUI) registrar saying it was "highly inconsistent" that the Senate of a university which rejected the Buckley Review Group's assessment of the NUI's role "should now confer the highest honour which the NUI is empowered to grant on the chairperson of that group".
In my personal opinion honorary degrees are a farce and should not be handed out in any circumstances. If institutions want to honour individuals there are surely a better ways than by arguably undermining students who put in several years' hard graft to get the same parchment. :|