Doctor of Philosophy

"Ph.D." redirects here. For other uses, see Ph.D. (disambiguation).

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated to PhD, or Ph.D. in English-speaking countries, for the Latin philosophiae doctor, meaning "teacher in the love of wisdom", is an advanced academic degree awarded by universities. In most English-speaking countries, the PhD is the highest degree one can earn (although in some countries like the UK, Ireland, and the Commonwealth nations higher doctorates are awarded). The PhD or equivalent has become a requirement for a career as a university professor or researcher in most fields. The academic level of degrees known as doctorates of philosophy varies according to the country and time period.

History

The doctorate was extended to philosophy in the European universities in the Middle Ages. At that time all academic disciplines outside the professional fields of theology, medicine and law came under the broad heading of "philosophy" (or "natural philosophy" when referring to science). According to Wellington, Bathmaker, Hunt, McCullough and Sikes (2005), the first Doctor of Philosophy degree was awarded in Paris in 1150, but the degree did not acquire its modern status as an advanced research degree until the early nineteenth century, following the practice in Germany. Prior to the nineteenth century, professional doctoral degrees could only be awarded in theology, law, or medicine. In 1861, Yale University adopted the German practice (first introduced in the 19th century at the Berlin University) of granting the degree, abbreviated as Dr. phil., to younger students who had completed a prescribed course of graduate study and successfully defended a thesis/dissertation containing original research in science or in the humanities.

From the United States, the degree spread to Canada in 1900, and then to the United Kingdom in 1917. This displaced the existing Doctor of Philosophy degree in some universities; for instance, the DPhil (higher doctorate in the faculty of philosophy) at the University of St Andrews was discontinued and replaced with the Ph.D., (research doctorate). Oxford retained the DPhil abbreviation for their research degrees. Some newer UK universities, for example Buckingham (est. 1976), Sussex (est. 1961), and, until a few years ago, York (est. 1963), chose to adopt the DPhil, as did some universities in New Zealand.

Requirements

The detailed requirements for award of a Ph.D. degree vary throughout the world. In some countries (the US, Canada, Denmark, for example), most universities require coursework in addition to research for Ph.D. degrees. In many other countries (such as the UK) there is generally no such condition. It is not uncommon, however, for individual universities or departments to specify additional requirements for students not already in possession of a master's degree or equivalent or higher.

In countries requiring coursework, there is usually a prescribed minimum amount of study — typically two to three years full time, or a set number of credit hours — which must take place before submission of a thesis. This requirement is usually waived for those submitting a portfolio of peer-reviewed published work. The candidate may also be required to successfully complete a certain number of additional, advanced courses relevant to his or her area of specialization.

A candidate must submit a thesis or dissertation consisting of a suitable body of original academic research, which is in principle worthy of publication in a peer-refereed context. In many countries a candidate must defend this work before a panel of expert examiners appointed by the university; in other countries, the dissertation is examined by a panel of expert examiners who stipulate whether the dissertation is in principle passable and the issues that need to be addressed before the dissertation can be passed.

Universities in the non–English-speaking world have begun adopting similar standards to those of the Anglophone PhD degree for their research doctorates (see the Bologna process).

A PhD student or candidate is conventionally required to study on campus under close supervision. With the popularity of distance education and e-learning technologies, some universities now accept students enrolled into a distance education part-time mode.

Doctor of Philosophy degrees across the globe

Argentina

See also: Education in Argentina

Admission

In Argentina, the admission to a PhD program at an Argentine University requires the full completion of a Master's degree or a Licentiate's degree. Non-Argentinian Master's titles are generally accepted into a PhD program when the degree comes from a recognized university.

Funding

While a significant portion of postgraduate students finance their tuition and living costs with teaching or research work at private and state-run institutions, international institutions, such as the Fullbright Program and the Organization of American States (OAS), have been known to grant full scholarships for tuition with apportions for housing.

Requirements for completion

Upon completion of at least two years' research and course work as a graduate student, a candidate must demonstrate truthful and original contributions to his or her specific field of knowledge within a frame of academic excellence. The doctoral candidate's work should be presented in a dissertation or thesis prepared under the supervision of a tutor or director, and reviewed by a Doctoral Committee. This Committee should be composed of examiners that are external to the program, and at least one of them should also be external to the institution. The academic degree of Doctor, respective to the correspondent field of science that the candidate has contributed with original and rigorous research, is received after a successful defense of the candidate’s dissertation.

India

Admission

In India a Masters degree is required to gain admission to a doctoral program. In some subjects, doing a Masters in Philosophy (M.Phil) is a prerequisite to start PhD. For some prestigious universities it is required to qualify the all India level examination such as ‘National Eligibility Test for Lectureship (NET) conducted by ‘University Grants Commission'.

Germany

See also: Education in Germany

Admission

In Germany an advanced degree (Master, Diploma, Magister or Staatsexamen) and above-average grades are often required to gain admission to a doctoral program. The degree should usually be in a related field. The candidate must also find a tenured professor or Privatdozent to serve as the formal advisor and supervisor (Betreuer) of the dissertation throughout the doctoral program. This supervisor is informally referred to as Doktorvater/Doktormutter.

Doctoral programs in Germany generally take one to four years – usually three, up to five in Engineering – to complete, strongly depending on the subject. There are usually no formal classes or lectures to attend, and the doctoral candidate (Doktorand/-in) mainly conducts independent research under the tutelage of a single professor or advisory committee. This is a considerable difference from the situation in many other countries (such as the U. S.), where doctoral candidates are often referred to as PhD "students" and have some formal curriculum. For German doctoral candidates, this rather inaccurate term should be avoided, because they do not take formal courses, but are often considered a full member of staff.

A good deal of doctoral candidates work as teaching or research assistants, and are paid a reasonably competitive salary. However, external funding by research organisations and foundations is also common. Furthermore, many universities have established research-intensive Graduiertenkollegs, which are graduate schools that provide funding for doctoral theses.

Other countries

In German-speaking countries, most Eastern European countries, the former Soviet Union, most parts of Africa, Asia, and many Spanish-speaking countries the corresponding degree is simply called "doctor" (Doktor), and is distinguished by subject area with a Latin suffix (e.g. "Dr. med." for doctor medicinae, "Dr. rer. nat" for doctor rerum naturalium — Doctor of Natural Science, "Dr. phil." for doctor philosophiae, "Dr. iur." for doctor iuris, etc.).

In the former Soviet Union, the Doctor of Sciences is the higher of two sequential post-graduate degrees, with Candidate of Sciences (Russian - кандидат наук) being universally accepted as the equivalent of the PhD, while the Doctorate is a (Full) Professors' or Academicians' separate and subsequent degree, indicating that the holder is a distinguished, honoured, and outstanding member of the scientific community. It is rarely awarded to those younger than late middle age or lacking in achievement and is a symbol of success in an academic career.

Italy

The Dottorato di ricerca (research doctorate) is an academic title awarded at the end of a course of not less than three years, admission to which is based on entrance examinations. Doctorate courses are open, without age or citizenship limits, to all those who already hold a degree or similar academic title awarded abroad which has been recognised as equivalent to an Italian degree by the Committee responsible for the entrance examinations. The number of places on offer each year and details of the entrance examinations are set out in the examination announcement.

Spain

Doctor Degrees are regulated by Royal Decree (R.D. 778/1998), Real Decreto (in Spanish). They are granted by the University on behalf of the King, and its Diploma has the force of a public document. The Ministry of Science keeps a National Registry of Theses called TESEO. According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), less than 5% of MSc degree holders are admitted to PhD programs, and less than 10% of first-year PhD students are finally granted a Doctor title.

All doctoral programs are of a research nature. A minimum of 5 years of study are required, divided into 2 stages:

1. A 3-year-long period of studies, which concludes with a public dissertation presented to a panel of 3 Professors. If the projects receives approval from the university, he/she will receive a "Diploma de Estudios Avanzados" (part qualified doctor).
2. A 2-year (or longer) period of research. Extensions may be requested for up to 10 years. The student must write his thesis presenting a new discovery or original contribution to Science. If approved by his "thesis director", the study will be presented to a panel of 5 distinguished scholars. Any Doctor attending the public presentations is allowed to challenge the candidate with questions on his research. If approved, he will receive the doctorate. Four marks can be granted (Unsatisfactory, Pass, "Cum laude", and "Summa cum laude"). Those Doctors granted their degree "Summa Cum Laude" are allowed to apply for an "Extraordinary Award".

A Doctor Degree is required to apply to a teaching position at the University.

The social standing of Doctors in Spain is evidenced by the fact that only PhD holders, Grandees and Dukes can take seat and cover their heads in the presence of the King. All Doctor Degree holders are reciprocally recognized as equivalent in Germany and Spain ("Bonn Agreement of November 14, 1994").

United Kingdom

A University of Oxford DPhil in full academic dress.

Admission

Universities admit applicants to PhD programmes on case-by-case bases; depending on the university, admission is typically conditional on the prospective student having successfully completed an undergraduate degree with at least upper second-class honours, or a postgraduate master's degree, but requirements can vary.

In the case of the University of Oxford, for example, "The one essential condition of being accepted...is evidence of previous academic excellence, and of future potential." Commonly, students are first accepted on to an MPhil programme and may transfer to PhD regulations upon satisfactory progress and is referred to as APG (Advanced Postgraduate) status. This is typically done after one or two years, and the research work done can potentially count towards the PhD degree. If a student fails to make satisfactory progress, he or she may be offered the opportunity to write up and submit for an MPhil degree.

In addition, PhD students from countries outside the EU/EFTA area are required to comply with the Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS), which involves undergoing a security clearance process with the Foreign Office for certain courses in medicine, mathematics and many natural, engineering and material sciences. This requirement was introduced in 2007 due to concerns about terrorism and weapons proliferation.

A New Route PhD program has been launched by 33 UK universities to prepare students better in their research skills and knowledge.

In UK an equivalent formation to doctorate is the NVQ 5 or QCF 8. http://www.ofqual.gov.uk/qualification-and-assessment-framework/89-articles/250-explaining-the-national-qualifications-framework

Funding

In the United Kingdom, funding for PhD students is sometimes provided by government-funded Research Councils or the European Social Fund, usually in the form of a tax-free bursary which consists of tuition fees together with a stipend of around GBP 12,940 per year for three years (rising to £14,940 per year in London), whether or not the degree continues for longer. Scientific studentships are usually paid at a higher rate, for example, in London, Cancer Research UK, the ICR and the Wellcome Trust stipend rates start at around £19,000 and progress annually to around £23,000 a year; an amount that is tax and national insurance free. Research Council funding is sometimes 'earmarked' for a particular department or research group, who then allocate it to a chosen student, although in doing so they are generally expected to abide by the usual minimum entry requirements (typically a first degree with upper second class honours, although successful completion of a postgraduate master's degree is usually counted as raising the class of the first degree by one division for these purposes). However, the availability of funding in many disciplines (especially humanities, social studies, and pure science subjects) means that in practice only those with the best research proposals, references and backgrounds are likely to be awarded a studentship. The ESRC (Economic and Social Science Research Council) explicitly state that a 2.1 minimum (or 2.2 plus additional masters degree) is required - no additional marks are given for students with a first class honours or a distinction at masters level.

Since 2002, there has been a move by research councils to fund interdisciplinary doctoral training centres such as MOAC which concentrate on communication between traditional disciplines and an emphasis on transferable skills in addition to research training.

Many students who are not in receipt of external funding may choose to undertake the degree part time, thus reducing the tuition fees, as well as creating free time in which to earn money for subsistence.

Students may also take part in tutoring, work as research assistants, or (occasionally) deliver lectures, at a rate of typically £25–30 per hour, either to supplement existing low income or as a sole means of funding.

Completion

There is usually a preliminary assessment to remain in the programme and the thesis is submitted at the end of a 3- to 4-year programme. Because students in the UK may specialize in a subject at an earlier stage in their education, the timeline of 4 years to complete a PhD program may be equivalent with the 4- to 6-year North American PhD; however, Canadian students also specialize early in a subject and many complete a 2- to 3-year Masters Degree before beginning a PhD programme, so the equivalency may not always be true. Someone with an American undergrad degree pursuing a PhD in the UK typically is required to complete up to two years (MPhil) of coursework before embarking on a PhD programme. The PhD timeline in the humanities, therefore, depending on one's starting point, can typically be 2+4, or six years, especially for students coming from countries where less early specialization takes place, e.g. the U.S.A.. These periods are usually extended pro rata for part-time students. With special dispensation, the final date for the thesis can be extended for up to four additional years, for a total of seven, but this is rare. Since the early 1990s, the UK funding councils have adopted a policy of penalising departments where large proportions of students fail to submit their theses in four years after achieving PhD-student status (or pro rata equivalent) by reducing the number of funded places in subsequent years.

Other doctorates

In the United Kingdom PhD degrees are distinct from other doctorates, most notably the higher doctorates such as D.Litt. (Doctor of Letters) or D.Sc. (Doctor of Science), which are granted on the recommendation of a committee of examiners on the basis of a substantial portfolio of submitted (and usually published) research.

Recent years have seen the introduction of professional doctorates, which are the same level as PhDs but are not solely academic, combining academic research, a taught comoponent and a professional qualification. These are most notably in the fields of engineering (Eng.D.), education (Ed.D.), occupational psychology (D.Occ Psych.) clinical psychology (D.Clin.Psych.), public administration (D.P.A.), business administration (D.B.A.), and music (D.M.A.). These typically have a more formal taught component consisting of smaller research projects, as well as a 40,000-60,000 word thesis component, which collectively is equivalent to that of a PhD degree.

United States

Overview

Further information: Doctorate § United States

In the United States, the PhD degree is the highest academic degree awarded by universities in most fields of study. The PhD degree is often misunderstood to be synonymous with the term doctorate. While the PhD degree is the most common doctorate, the term doctorate can refer to any number of doctoral degrees in the United States. The U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation recognize numerous doctoral degrees as "equivalent", and do not discriminate between them. In law, for example, the degree of Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D.) as the equivalent to the PhD.

American students typically undergo a series of three phases in the course of their work toward the PhD degree. The first phase consists of coursework in the student's field of study and requires one to three years to complete. This often is followed by a preliminary, a comprehensive examination, or a series of cumulative examinations where the emphasis is on breadth rather than depth of knowledge. The student is often later required to pass oral and written examinations in the field of specialization within the discipline, and here, depth is emphasized. Some PhD programs require the candidate to successfully complete requirements in pedagogy (taking courses on higher level teaching and teaching undergraduate courses) or applied science (e.g., clinical practica and predoctoral clinical internship in PhD programs in clinical or counseling psychology).

Another two to four years are usually required for the composition of a substantial and original contribution to human knowledge in the form of a written dissertation, which in the social sciences and humanities typically ranges from 50 to 450 pages in length. In many cases, depending on the discipline, a dissertation consists of (i) a comprehensive literature review, (ii) an outline of methodology, and (iii) several chapters of scientific, social, historical, philosophical, or literary analysis. Typically, upon completion, the candidate undergoes an oral examination, sometimes public, by his or her supervisory committee with expertise in the given discipline.

As the PhD degree is often a preliminary step toward a career as a professor, throughout the whole period of study and dissertation research the student, depending on the university and degree, may be required or offered the opportunity to teach undergraduate and occasionally graduate courses in relevant subjects.

Admission

There are 282 universities in the United States that award the PhD degree, and those universities vary widely in their criteria for admission, as well as the rigor of their academic programs. Typically, PhD programs require applicants to have a Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (and, in many cases in the humanities, a master's degree), reasonably high grades, several letters of recommendation, relevant academic coursework, a cogent statement of interest in the field of study, and satisfactory performance on a graduate-level exam specified by the respective program (e.g., GRE, GMAT). Specific admissions criteria differ substantially according to university admissions policies and fields of study; some programs in well-regarded research universities may admit less than five percent of applicants and require an exceptional performance on the GRE along with near-perfect grades, strong support in letters of recommendation, substantial research experience, and academically sophisticated samples of their writing.

Master's degree "en route"

As applicants to many PhD programs are not required to have master's degrees, many programs award a Master of Arts or Master of Science degree "en route", "in passing", or "in course" based on the graduate work done in the course of achieving the PhD. Students who receive such master's degrees are usually required to complete a certain amount of coursework and a master's thesis or field examination. Not all PhD programs require additional work to obtain a master's en route to the PhD (e.g., a master's thesis). Depending on the specific program, masters-in-passing degrees can be either mandatory or optional. Not all PhD students choose to complete the additional requirements necessary for the MA or MS if such requirements are not mandated by their programs. Those students will simply obtain the PhD degree at the end of their graduate study.

Time

Depending on the specific field of study, completion of a PhD program usually takes four to eight years of study after the Bachelor's Degree; those students who begin a PhD program with a master's degree may complete their PhD degree a year or two sooner. As PhD programs typically lack the formal structure of undergraduate education, there are significant individual differences in the time taken to complete the degree. Many U.S. universities have set a ten-year limit for students in PhD programs, or refuse to consider graduate credit older than ten years as counting towards a PhD degree. Similarly, students may be required to re-take the comprehensive exam if they do not defend their dissertations within five years after submitting it to their self-chosen dissertation advisors. Overall, 57% of students who begin a PhD program in the US will complete their degree within ten years, approximately 30% will drop out or be dismissed, and the remaining 13% of students will continue on past ten years.

Funding

Doctoral students are usually discouraged from engaging in external employment during the course of their graduate training. As a result, PhD students at U.S. universities typically receive a tuition waiver and some form of annual stipend. The source and amount of funding varies from field to field and university to university. Many U.S. graduate students work as teaching assistants or research assistants while they are doctoral students. Graduate schools increasingly encourage their students to seek outside funding; many are supported by fellowships they obtain for themselves or by their advisers' research grants from government agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Many Ivy League and other well-endowed universities provide funding for the entire duration of the degree program (if it is short) or for most of it.

PhD candidacy

A PhD Candidate (sometimes called Candidate of Philosophy) is a postgraduate student at the doctoral level who has successfully satisfied the requirements for doctoral studies, except for the final thesis or dissertation. As such, a PhD Candidate is sometimes called an "ABD" (All But Dissertation or All But Defended). It is common among students to use the "ABD" designation comically as "All But Done". Although a minor distinction in postgraduate study, achieving PhD Candidacy is not without benefit. For example, PhD Candidate status may coincide with an increase in the student's monthly stipend and may make the student eligible for additional employment opportunities.

Some programs also include a Master of Philosophy degree as part of the PhD program. The MPhil, in those universities that offer it, is usually awarded after the appropriate MA or MS (as above) is awarded, and the degree candidate has completed all further requirements for the PhD degree (which may include additional language requirements, course credits, teaching experiences, and comprehensive exams) aside from the writing and defense of the dissertation itself. This formalizes the "all but dissertation" (ABD) status used informally by some students, and represents that the student has achieved a higher level of scholarship than the MA/MS would indicate - as such, the MPhil is sometimes a helpful credential for those applying for teaching or research posts while completing their dissertation work for the PhD degree itself.

PhD Candidate is not to be confused with Candidate of Sciences, an academic degree that has been used in certain countries in place of PhD.

Vietnam

A PhD title holder must fulfill a number of strict requirements including: - Pass entrance examinations including a professional examination, a foreign language examination, and defend successfully the dissertation proposal - Conduct the research work as approved in the entrance examination - Publish research results in respective professional journals - Successfully defend the research results twice, first with a scientific panel designated by the university. If passed, the PhD candidate will have to defend in a nation-wide panel including two hidden peer reviewers; the panel formulated by the ministry of education and training. Vietnam is trying to improve the PhD training quality as well as current complicated procedures.

Models of supervision

At some universities, there may be training for those wishing to supervise PhD studies. There is now a lot of literature published for academics who wish to do this, such as Delamont, Atkinson and Parry (1997). Indeed, Dinham and Scott (2001) have argued that the worldwide growth in research students has been matched by increase in a number of what they term "how-to" texts for both students and supervisors, citing examples such as Pugh and Phillips (1987). These authors report empirical data on the benefits that PhD students may gain if they publish their work, and note that PhD students are more likely to do this with adequate encouragement from their supervisors.

Wisker (2005) has noticed how research into this field has distinguished between two models of supervision: The technical-rationality model of supervision, emphasising technique; The negotiated order model, being less mechanistic and emphasising fluid and dynamic change in the PhD process. These two models were first distinguished by Acker, Hill and Black (1994; cited in Wisker, 2005). Considerable literature exists on the expectations that supervisors may have of their students (Phillips & Pugh, 1987) and the expectations that students may have of their supervisors (Phillips & Pugh, 1987; Wilkinson, 2005) in the course of PhD supervision. Similar expectations are implied by the Quality Assurance Agency's Code for Supervision (Quality Assurance Agency, 1999; cited in Wilkinson, 2005).

See also

International PhD Equivalent Degrees:

• Belgium (Dutch-speaking): Doctor
• Belgium (French-speaking): Doctorat
• Brazil: Doutorado
• Bulgaria: Доктор
• China: 博士
• Egypt: Doctorat
• Estonia: Doktor
• Finland: Tohtori
• France: Doctorat
• Germany: Doktor
• Greece: Διδακτορικό
• Hong Kong: 博士
• Indonesia: Doktor
• Iran: دکترا
• Israel: דוקטורט ("doctorat")
• Italy: Dottorato di ricerca
• Japan: 博士
• Korea: 박사
• Latin America: Doctorado/Doctorate
• Lithuania: Daktaras
• Macau: 博士
• Malaysia: Doktor Falsafah
• Mexico: Doctorado
• Netherlands: Doctor
• Peru: Doctorado
• Poland: Doktor
• Portugal: Doutoramento
• Romania: Doctorat
• Russia: Кандидат наук
• Singapore: Doctor
• Serbia: Доктор
• Spain: Doctorado
• Syria: دكتوراه (doktorah)
• Taiwan： 博士
• Turkey: Doktora
• Ukraine: Кандидат наук
• Vietnam: Tiến sĩ

Other Degrees:

• PhD in Management - A program designed for students interested in becoming professors in Business.
• Doctorate - A general term describing a set of degrees analogous to the PhD.
• Terminal degree - The highest degree awarded in a field, usually a PhD.
• Graduate student - A student pursuing education past the bachelor's degree, such as Masters Degree or a PhD.
• C.Phil. (also ABD) - Term, usually used unofficially, for a graduate student who has completed all PhD coursework but has yet to defend his or her dissertation.
• Доктор наук - Degree awarded by USSR and post-Soviet states (for example Russia, Ukraine).
• Licentiate - Degree awarded in various countries, including Portugal, Belgium, the UK, Argentina, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Poland.
• Sandwich PhD Programme

PhD in popular culture:

• Piled Higher and Deeper - Life (or the lack thereof) in Academia, a comic strip by Jorge Cham

References

• Delamont, S., Atkinson, P. & Parry, O. (1997). Supervising the Ph.D.: A guide to success. Buckingham: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-19516-4
• Dinham, S. & Scott, C. (2001). The experience of the results of disseminating the results of doctoral research. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 25 (1) 45-55. ISSN: 1469-9486
• MacGillivray, Alex; Potts, Gareth; Raymond, Polly. Secrets of Their Success (London: New Economics Foundation, 2002).
• Phillips, E. & Pugh, D.S. (1987). How to get a PhD : managing the peaks and troughs of research / Estelle M. Phillips and D.S. Pugh. Milton Keynes: Open University Press ISBN 0-335-15537-5
• Simpson, Renate. How the PhD came to Britain: A century of struggle for postgraduate education, Society for Research into Higher Education, Guildford (1983).
• Wellington, J. Bathmaker, A._M., Hunt, C., McCullough, G. & Sikes, P. (2005). Succeeding with your doctorate. London: Sage. ISBN 1-4129-0116-2
• Wilkinson, D. (2005) The essential guide to postgraduate study. London : SAGE ISBN 1-4129-0062-X (hbk.)
• Wisker, G. (2005) The Good Supervisor: Supervising Postgraduate and Undergraduate Research for Doctoral Theses and Dissertations. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1-4039-0395-6.