Mary Burgess wrote,
I believe this happens with prominent people (e.g., bestselling book writers or visionaries otherwise recognized) in some fields. For example, if Steve Jobs decided to adjunct at a university, now that he's retired, I bet pretty much any place in the world would gladly take him and offer him a competitive PhD-level salary. At which he would probably laugh, but that's beside the point. At my traditional graduation ceremony, Steve Wozniak gave a speech welcoming us shmucks to the grown-up world (better late than never) and got his honorary PhD too. I treasure the memory of getting my diploma from his hands; his accomplishments definitely count at the PhD level.I wonder what would happen if someone applied for a faculty position that required a PhD. and a candidate had done an equivalent amount of learning using OERs but had no actual credential.
Maybe we can look at these precedents for pointers. Then we can build a system that gives people more prominence and recognition within their networks - analogous to the "Apple co-founder=PhD" or "bestselling author = MS" schemes.