What has been called "degree recognition" has become the subject of considerable attention in Canadian higher education within the past decade. While concerns similar to those that are being voiced today have arisen occasionally in the past, the scale of this phenomenon today is unprecedented historically. In response to the increased demand for degrees that began in the late twentieth century, a great number of diverse types of institutions and organizations have sought the authority to award degrees; and governments in four provinces have decided that it is in the public interest to allow some of these new providers to offer degree programs in Canada, thus ending the monopoly on degree granting formerly held by the publicly funded universities. These new providers include: (1) public colleges and institutes; (2) private postsecondary institutions; (3) corporate universities in both the private and public sector; (4) virtual universities; (5) transnational degree programs; and (6) special mission institutions such as aboriginal colleges. In this article, the author attempts to clarify the term degree recognition. He identifies and contrasts four possible meanings or uses of the term, as he believes that different contributors to the discourse on degree recognition often are using the term in different ways. Then he discusses two values that he thinks underlie major differences of opinion regarding the recognition of many degrees.