Age: 861.
Appearance: A series of initials at the end of a highly educated person's name.
What is it? It's an advanced degree – doctor of philosophy – in a specific field, not necessarily philosophy.
How would I go about getting one? First you would need a good undergraduate degree. Then you would have to complete a three- or four-year programme, and write a doctoral thesis. Alternatively, you could just steal one.
If I'm honest, the latter sounds like the most sensible route for me. Can you give me an example of someone in the news who may have achieved his PhD through theft? How about Saif Gaddafi, the second son of Libyan-leader-at-press-time Muammar Gaddafi?
Not much of a role model. How did he get his PhD? There are claims that his doctoral thesis was ghost-written and/or heavily plagiarised from other academic texts.
Well, if it was ghost-written, you can hardly blame him for the plagiarism. That's true.
But he got the degree anyway? Yes, he was awarded the PhD from the LSE's Centre for Global Governance in 2008. Shortly afterwards, he made a £1.5m gift to the LSE.
It doesn't sound like he stole his degree. If anything, he paid over the odds. Nevertheless, there are now calls for him to be stripped of his PhD.
And give him back his money? No, they've spent that.
Is Gaddafi Jr your only example of someone who took this shortcut? No. German defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has just stepped down after it emerged he plagiarised his PhD thesis. In Germany, they call him zu Googleberg.
You keep giving examples of people who got caught. Maybe a PhD isn't for me. Perhaps not.
Do say: "Each case of cheating devalues this respected degree."
Don't say: "Why steal a PhD? You can get them for £50 on the internet."
