Dead Indonesian gets PhD in Japan

Dead Indonesian gets PhD in Japan

JAKARTA (JP): An Indonesian national has become the first
person to get a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Japan after his
death.

Halwany Microb, an Indonesian education and culture ministry
official who died of cancer on July 3 last year, was posthumously
conferred his PhD in archeology at Chiba University, Japan, on
March 26.

The news was conveyed by the university's Professor Nakamura
who visited Jakarta on Monday.

Nakamura said the conferring of the academic title to a dead
man had stirred a hot debate in Japan, which does not have a
regulation on the matter.

Halwany, born in the West Java town of Banten on Feb. 14,
1938, died before completing his dissertation titled Historical
Reconstruction and Modern Development of the Islamic City of
Banten, Indonesia, Antara reported.

Nakamura said he added the finishing touches to the
dissertation which a team of professors agreed was good enough to
earn Halwany the doctorate.

He was considered the best among the three archeology students
at the university who graduated in the same period.

Halwany, whose last stint was as an expert staffer at the
National Archeology Agency in Jakarta, continued his post
graduate study in Chiba University after getting his master's
degree in Pennsylvania University in 1995. (pan)