A major university has had to upend its policies after an honorary degree recipient was charged with crimes against humanity.
The Australian National University has approved a more comprehensive procedure to strip people of honorary degrees after former Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Hasina was accused of crimes against humanity.
A special tribunal has indicted the former leader by accepting the crimes against humanity charges after mass protests in 2024 when hundreds of students were killed.
The charges describe her as the “mastermind, conductor and superior commander” of atrocities including mass killings, injuries and targeted violence against women and children.
She was awarded an honorary law degree by the university in 1999.
The university said it hadn’t stripped such a degree in recent history and needed to review its processes, after it was approached by AAP in April.
A detailed revocation procedure had since been endorsed by the university’s honorary committee and will be put before the ANU Council for sign off when it meets in October, a university spokesperson told AAP.
The honorary system allows for the degree to be stripped if a person breaches the ANU code of conduct or “undertakes activities that are, or are likely to be, in direct conflict with or significantly detrimental to the interests of the university”.
People with an association with the university are also obliged to “uphold the good name of the university and exercise judgement in the best interests of the university”, according to the code.
ANU director of researcher development Inger Mewburn said there needed to be clear and straightforward processes, and that had to be able to happen quickly.
“Our systems should be robust enough to survive bad actors,” the professor told AAP.
There also needed to be transparency if an award was stripped, she said.
She also questioned why honorary degrees were being handed out to politicians or some celebrities worldwide with no scholarly basis.
“It seems they’re given out for celebrity status or to curry favour,” the professor said.
“Some politicians have just done the job of being politicians, so what?”
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