Oscar-winner Ben Affleck is getting an honorary doctorate degree from Brown University, meaning he'll be known as Dr Ben Affleck from on guys. The actor, director and philanthropist, 40, will receive the honor from the Providence based university along with five other luminaries at the institutions commencement ceremony on May 26, 2013, according to the school's website.

Brown - a prestigious Ivy League university - will decorate Affleck with a degree in the fine arts. Others to be honored include MIT professor novelist Junot Diaz, bacteriologist Stanley Falkow, Tougaloo College President Beverly Wade Hogan, physician Risa Lavizzo-Mourey and Miami Dade College President Eduardo Padron. Despite conflicting reports, Affleck will not be giving a speech at the commencement ceremony.

Like many university, recipients of honorary degrees at Browns are nominated and then voted on by the Board of Fellows. The nominated deadline was in September 2012, long before Argo was even considered a major player for the Oscars. It went on to win Best Picture at both the Academy Awards and Golden Globes following a wave of critical acclaim. It followed the story of the Iranian Embassy crisis in 1979 and the plot to devise a fake sci-fi movie in order to rescue a team of Americans. 

So what is a honorary degree exactly? Well, it's a degree that a distinguished person is awarded without having to go through the regular requirements to obtain it - you know, showing up for class and stuff. It's basically a big fat certificate that makes you instantly more important.

Ben AffleckBen Affleck At The Director's Guild of America Awards