George Brandis, Mark Scott, Duncan Lewis, Natasha Stott Despoja and Rod Sims have one. So do Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, Tim Soutphommasane and Eddie Woo.

But professorships given to people without a PhD have raised the hackles of a group called Public Universities Australia, which claims “faux” professorships and honorary doctorates are undermining and devaluing “real scholarly achievements”.