academic degree vs accolade

academic degree and accolade both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
academic degree	Yes	No	No	No
accolade	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, accolade is a hypernym of academic degree; that is, accolade is a word with a broader meaning than academic degree:

academic degree: an award conferred by a college or university signifying that the recipient has satisfactorily completed a course of study
accolade: a tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction

Other hypernyms of academic degree include award, honor, honour, laurels.

academic degree (noun)	accolade (noun)
an award conferred by a college or university signifying that the recipient has satisfactorily completed a course of study	a tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction