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Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), an abbreviation for the Latin "Philosophić Doctor", or in non-Anglo-Saxon (e.g. German and Scandinavian) usage Doctor
philosophić, Dr.Phil.) was originally a degree
granted by a university to a learned individual who had achieved the approval
of his peers and who had demonstrated a long and productive career in the field of philosophy. The appellation of "Doctor" (from
Latin: teacher) was usually awarded only when the individual was in middle age. It indicated a life dedicated to learning, to
knowledge, and to the spread of knowledge. Philosophy was, however, considered the lowest of the faculties, and the Ph.D. died
out in many universities.
The degree was revived in the 19th century at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University as a degree to be granted to someone who had undertaken original research
in the sciences or humanities. From
here it spread to the US, arriving in the UK at the start of
the 20th century. This displaced the existing Doctor of Philosophy degree in some Universities - for instance the
D.Phil (higher doctorate in the faculty of philosophy) at the University of St Andrews was discontinued and replaced with the Ph.D. (research doctorate).
However some UK universities, notably Oxford retain the
D.Phil appellation for their research degrees.
Some ability to carry out original research has to be documented by producing a dissertation or thesis. In some countries the thesis must be given
an oral defense, known in the UK as a viva (short for viva voce,
Latin for "live voice") before a committee. The degree is often a prerequisite for permanent employment as a university professor or as a researcher in some sciences, though this varies on a
regional basis. In others such as engineering or geology, a doctoral degree is considered desirable but not essential for employment.
A doctoral candidate is typically educated by a thesis advisor, or supervisor, who chairs a thesis committee which supervises the doctoral candidate. In the US, doctoral programs typically
require a series of required and optional courses at the beginning of the program, but education in the latter portion of the
program tends to consist of informal discussions with the thesis advisor and individual research by the student. Many
universities separate the program into two portions with a required doctoral examination before allowing a student to be formally
admitted to a doctoral program. The funding of students varies from field to field, and many graduate students in the sciences
and engineering work as teaching assistants or research assistants while they are a doctoral student.
It typically takes several years of full time work to complete a doctoral program. In some fields such as physics, a doctoral degree is essential for employment. In some sciences, a newly graduated
doctoral student is unlikely to find work as a tenure-track professor and must undertake one or several postdoc positions.
In several countries (U.S., Australia)
most postgraduate students doing research at this level complete a Ph.D. degree, regardless of the subject area, though there are
many other doctoral degrees with different designations, e.g. D.A.
(Doctor of Arts), D.M.A. (Doctor of Musical Arts), Ed.D. (Doctor of Education), Th.D. (Doctor of Theology), etc. In some
countries, the corresponding degree is simply called "Doctor" or else is distinguished by subject area ("Doctor of Natural
Sciences", "Doctor of Social Sciences", "Dr. med."). Johns Hopkins University was the first university in the United States to confer doctoral degrees. In the United Kingdom, Ph.D.s are distinguishable from higher doctorates (such as D.Litt. (Doctor of Letters) or D.Sc. (Doctor of Science), which
are issued by a committee on the basis of a long record of research and publication). In Switzerland the European Graduate
School has a Dr.Phil in Communication.
While the Ph.D. is the most common doctoral degree, and even often (mis)understood to be synonymous with the term
“doctorate,” the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) recognize numerous doctoral degrees as equivalent,
and do not discriminate between them.
The Ph.D. is often the topic of scholarly debate and criticism, given its almost exclusive concern with research and publication to the alleged neglect of numerous other faculty responsibilities
that include teaching, collegial evaluation, collective and individual curricular planning, etc. Solutions have met with varying
degrees of success. In the 1960s, the prestigious Carnegie
Foundation helped promote and establish the Doctor of Arts degree
as an alternative to the Ph.D. The D.A. degree, with its focus on content specialty, curriculum design, and pedagogy, was designed to help prepare expert teachers in various fields. Its well-defined
disciplinary focus makes it different than the Ed.D. (Doctor of Education) while still
embracing the Ed.D.'s concern for issues in education. The D.A. continues to be offered in many universities across the United
States and in other countries, though a few D.A. programs have since been converted to the Ph.D. model. Still, the D.A. has many
steadfast supporters. Other solutions include a re-thinking of the Ph.D. in order to address its perceived shortcomings.
Sometimes a university grants an honorary Ph.D. or D.A., or other doctoral degree, with the added designation of honoris causa (Latin for for the
sake of honor), or Dr.h.c.
See also
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