diff --git a/course/classes/category.php b/course/classes/category.php
index cbe68789a86..abe5d565733 100644
--- a/course/classes/category.php
+++ b/course/classes/category.php
@@ -2592,8 +2592,6 @@ class core_course_category implements renderable, cacheable_object, IteratorAggr
      * moving categories, where you do not want to allow people to move a category
      * to be the child of itself.
      *
-     * See also {@link make_categories_options()}
-     *
      * @param string/array $requiredcapability if given, only categories where the current
      *      user has this capability will be returned. Can also be an array of capabilities,
      *      in which case they are all required.
diff --git a/course/lib.php b/course/lib.php
index 98703cc2d78..7408941ffef 100644
--- a/course/lib.php
+++ b/course/lib.php
@@ -636,23 +636,6 @@ function get_category_or_system_context($categoryid) {
     }
 }
 
-/**
- * Returns full course categories trees to be used in html_writer::select()
- *
- * Calls {@link core_course_category::make_categories_list()} to build the tree and
- * adds whitespace to denote nesting
- *
- * @return array array mapping course category id to the display name
- */
-function make_categories_options() {
-    $cats = core_course_category::make_categories_list('', 0, ' / ');
-    foreach ($cats as $key => $value) {
-        // Prefix the value with the number of spaces equal to category depth (number of separators in the value).
-        $cats[$key] = str_repeat(' ', substr_count($value, ' / ')). $value;
-    }
-    return $cats;
-}
-
 /**
  * Print the buttons relating to course requests.
  *
diff --git a/course/upgrade.txt b/course/upgrade.txt
index 45dc3a15c63..16e84d35e04 100644
--- a/course/upgrade.txt
+++ b/course/upgrade.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 This files describes API changes in /course/*,
 information provided here is intended especially for developers.
 
+=== 4.0 ===
+
+* The function make_categories_options() has now been deprecated. Please use \core_course_category::make_categories_list() instead.
+
 === 3.9 ===
 
 * The function get_module_metadata is now deprecated. Please use \core_course\local\service\content_item_service instead.
diff --git a/lib/deprecatedlib.php b/lib/deprecatedlib.php
index c28996f6587..48661cb6bf8 100644
--- a/lib/deprecatedlib.php
+++ b/lib/deprecatedlib.php
@@ -3351,3 +3351,19 @@ function user_get_participants($courseid, $groupid = 0, $accesssince, $roleid, $
 
     return $DB->get_recordset_sql("$select $from $where $sort", $params, $limitfrom, $limitnum);
 }
+
+/**
+ * Returns the list of full course categories to be used in html_writer::select()
+ *
+ * Calls {@see core_course_category::make_categories_list()} to build the list.
+ *
+ * @deprecated since Moodle 4.0
+ * @todo This will be finally removed for Moodle 4.4 as part of MDL-69124.
+ * @return array array mapping course category id to the display name
+ */
+function make_categories_options() {
+    $deprecatedtext = __FUNCTION__ . '() is deprecated. Please use \core_course_category::make_categories_list() instead.';
+    debugging($deprecatedtext, DEBUG_DEVELOPER);
+
+    return core_course_category::make_categories_list('', 0, ' / ');
+}