This list of animals awarded human credentials includes nonhuman animals who have been submitted as applicants to suspected diploma mills, and have been awarded a diploma. On occasion, they have been admitted and granted a degree, as reported in reliable sources. Animals are often used as a device to clearly demonstrate the lax standards or fraudulent activities of the awarding institutions. In at least one case, a cat's degree helped lead to a successful fraud prosecution against the institution that had issued it.
On occasion, accredited institutions award mock degrees to animals for humorous purposes, e.g. UNSW awarded a "dogtorate" (not doctorate) to a dog;[1] such cases are not included below.