As John D. Wiley, former provost at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, correctly noted almost 20 years ago, “We are already seeing this very phenomenon of degree inflation, and it is being caused by the professions themselves! This is particularly problematic in the health professions, where, it seems, everyone wants to be called ‘doctor.’ I have no problem whatsoever with the professional societies and their accreditors telling us what a graduate must know to practice safely and professionally. I have a big problem, though, when they hand us what amounts to a master’s-level curriculum and tell us the resulting degree must be called a ‘doctor of X.’ This is a transparently self-interested ploy by the profession, and I see no conceivable argument that it is in the public interest. All it does is further confuse an already confusing array of degree names and titles, to no useful purpose.”
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