LONDON (AFP) – US fast food giant McDonald’s is hoping to offer PhDs, after receiving approval to award its own nationally recognised qualifications in Britain, the company’s “chief people officer” said Monday.

Speaking to the Financial Times, David Fairhurst said the company’s new power to award qualifications made it “a university in its own right”, and added that the company wanted to award qualifications equivalent to university degrees.

“One day, I’d love to see us doing a PhD, I definitely think we should go as far as we can,” he told the business daily.

He cautioned, however, that the company wanted to perfect its current training regimen, which includes courses in shift management that are equivalent in level to A-levels or high school courses, before putting together a post-graduate qualification.

McDonald’s was one of nine employers or employer groups last year that received the power to award qualifications, which Britain wants to encourage so that more workers will have recognised certificates to increase their employability.

The company has long sought to challenge the perception that it only creates low-level, poorly-paid “McJobs“.