What are the criteria for degree revocation?

Question

I was awarded a degree from a reputable college or university. For what reasons could my degree be revoked after the fact? Should I be worried?

Note to readers: This is a special community wiki 'canonical' question that aggregates advice on a frequently-asked question. See this meta discussion. Please feel free to edit this question to improve it.

Each answer here relates to a different criterion which may (or may not) lead to degree revocation. If you have a new possible criterion, please add an answer. If you have more information about an existing criterion, please edit the existing answer.

Answer 1

Please feel free to edit this answer to improve it.

Short answer: will my degree be revoked?

Almost certainly not. Degree revocation is extremely rare, and almost always involves some major, willful misconduct such as plagiarizing long sections or falsifying data. Almost everyone who has raised concerns on this site over the years had nothing to worry about. The different answers below discuss different criteria that could lead to degree revocation, but these are generally edge cases. The typical person who earned their degree in good faith has nothing to worry about.

But this site cannot give you a definitive answer. Different schools have different staff and different policies, so it is impossible to predict how a particular institution will respond to a particular situation. Nor can we decide whether you committed misconduct (and even if we did, our decision would not count for anything). We recommend checking your school's policy on degree revocation (often available online). If you are concerned about degree revocation, you could discuss the issue with a legal advisor or the school in question, though you may be better off "letting sleeping dogs lie."

Finally, note that degree revocation may be discussed or threatened rather more frequently than it actually occurs. Individuals and/or organisations may respond to some incident or action by 'calling on the university to revoke the degree', and this may gain traction on social (or indeed traditional) media. However, this does not mean it is actually likely to happen.

Answer 2

Please feel free to edit this answer to improve it.

Criterion: Research or Academic Misconduct (e.g., Plagiarism)

Degree revocation is very rare. When it does happen, academic misconduct is usually the cause, and it usually must be severe and intentional. As henning writes:

I've been working in Academia for the past ten years. The only cases of degree revocation that I am aware of were due to severe cases of academic misconduct such as plagiarism, fraud, or large-scale cheating. The rationale is that gross academic misconduct invalidates the achievement the degree should certify.

Similarly, canadian humanist reports:

I sit on our university's Senate which is the body that would have to deliberate a degree revocation. Even a straight-forward case of plagiarism in a degree requires a long, drawn-out and surprisingly contentious decision, and it might happen once or twice a decade. This is the last step of a very, very long and drawn-out process.

So no, I wouldn't worry, outside of demonstrable research misconduct that puts the entire integrity of the degree in jeopardy.

A now-departed user provides some examples of degrees which have been revoked for major academic misconuduct, notably plagiarism:

There have been spectacular examples of falling from grace.

• Pal Schmitt resigned as President of Hungary after his doctorate was stripped by Semmelweis University on findings of plagiarism.
• Former German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg graduated...from the University of Bayreuth in 2006...A finding of plagiarism led to his degree being revoked.

The same answer also reiterates that the criteria for revocation due to academic misconduct are likely formally defined by your university:

In my university...the policy allows for a revocation in the event that the degree was awarded in error or through fraud. The policy proceeds to list the criteria and processes to be followed. Fraud is defined broadly and includes conventional definitions of academic misconduct, but other acts as well. Finally, there is a specific clause [stating that] one cannot [defend oneself] on the basis that there was no intention to commit fraud.

Practices on degree revocation also vary regionally. Sergio J Castro reports that degree revocation in the Spanish-speaking world almost never happens, even when clearly merited.

Could academic misconduct after completing the degree lead to revocation? User Stephan Kolassa addresses this:

Yes. Although you will need to do something blatantly unethical.

For instance, my alma mater (the University of Konstanz, in Germany) revoked an alumnus' Ph.D. after this alumnus blatantly falsified data, although the Ph.D. thesis as such was not tainted.

But this varies regionally. Araucaria describes a 2005 paper from a US institution, which did not find a single degree that was revoked for bad acts subsequent to graduation.

In the (2005) paper The Right of Educational Institutions to Withhold or Revoke Academic Degrees from the Stetson University College of Law Twenty-sixth Annual National Conference on Law and Higher Education, the authors give an in-depth survey of reasons universities have successfully revoked degrees. Not one of these involves the behaviour of a candidate after they have completely left the institution—whether this behaviour be academic, political or indeed criminal. [Note, Stetson is in the US].

Further, revocation due to academic misconduct is rare due to practical reasons. As reported here, it is often difficult to prove that academic misconduct took place happened years after the fact. And outside of certain high-profile individuals, few theses are scrutinized after being approved.

Prior to this wiki's creation, Academia.SE received dozens of questions from users concerned that they could be accused of academic misconduct, leading to their degree being revoked. To my knowledge, the answer was never once "yes, you committed academic misconduct and your degree is likely to be revoked." For example, concerns like data changing underneath you, the thesis not containing sufficient novelty, self-reporting possible problems with the thesis, or having a missing degree requirement were all dismissed.

Answer 3

Please feel free to edit this answer to improve it.

Not a Criterion: Political Activities

As discussed here, revoking a degree based on political activities (e.g., criticizing the university that granted the degree) would gather wide attention, but we are not aware of any such cases having happened. Although anything could happen in the future, given the lack of observed cases it does not seem political activity is considered grounds for revoking (non-honorary) degrees.

Indeed, taking any sort of action based on political expression is anathema to Western ideas of tertiary education.

Answer 4

Please feel free to edit this answer to improve it.

Criterion: Personal Misconduct

Degree revocation is very rare, and is usually a result of academic misconduct that renders the degree itself invalid. However, degrees are occasionally revoked for serious personal misconduct, particularly in Europe.

We should first distinguish between honorary degrees and academic degrees. As Ian Sudbery explains:

Honorary degrees are given to some for expressly moral judgement even though the recipient hasn't completed any classes or met the required academic standards. They are awarded because they represent to sort of character that they would like the world to associate with the university. If they prove themselves not that have that character, or stop having that character, then it makes sense to remove the honorary degree.

For academic degrees, the situation is quite different regionally. In Europe, degrees can be (and are) revoked for personal misconduct, though it is rare. For example Earthlin reports that in Germany:

a PhD may be revoked in case of:

• a wilful act resulting in a prison sentence of one year or more, or
• a deliberate/wilful offence abusing their scientific qualification.

These are quite "mild" conditions, presumably in place to discourage degree holders to engage in behaviour on the wrong side of the law.

Similarly, doog reports that Cambridge is/was in the process of revoking a pedophile's degree, though in this case, the bad acts happened while attending the university and were discovered later.

On the other hand, revocation for personal misconduct in the US is even less likely, as user6726 reports:

In the US, you have a property right to the degree that you earn and pay for (regardless of the ultimate source of funding -- the student has the responsibility to pay), and as long as you don't violate the conditions for obtaining the degree (various forms of dishonesty in admissions and satisfaction of the degree), improper actions after the fact don't license depriving a person of what they have earned.

In the US, an example of honorary degrees being revoked would be the comedian and supporter of higher education, Bill Cosby. As of May 2024, his honorary degree Wikipedia page lists that 62 of his 72 honorary degrees have "been revoked due to his now-overturned conviction on sexual assault charges."

(**) Existing answers are limited to Europe and the US; please feel free to edit this page with your expert knowledge about other parts of the world.

Answer 5

Criterion: Admissions Fraud

If a student was admitted to a university through fraudulent means and graduated, the university may revoke the degree once it knows that the student should not have attended the institution in the first place. For example, UPenn initiated a policy that states the university may revoke degrees for providing false information on their applications.