Phd Studies - Phd Studies

PhD Studies Leading To Faculty Enrollments

PhD, which is the abbreviated form of Doctor of Philosophy, comes from the Latin term Philosophiæ Doctor, and means "teacher of philosophy". This term is more rarely used as D.Phil, an equivalent term for Doctor Philosophiæ, which is an advanced academic degree. The term is commonly linked with research doctorate, and it is applicable to graduates who have successfully completed research work in a wide variety of disciplines, such as, literature, science, humanities, and other subject matters. The degree is usually awarded to those graduates who have successfully completed an advanced course of study, have gone through the necessary original research work in the discipline of his study, and written a thesis on the findings of his research work, and has been able to defend his findings before a examination committee. PhD studies course is generally offered to those who have completed at least a Bachelor's Degree, and have scored an appropriate gradation in the subject matter of his intended research.

The term 'doctorate' has changed over time. In previous days, mostly in the English-speaking universities, very few people would be holding a doctorate degree, except for the top senior scholars. In course of time, the practice in Germany introduced the requirement of such a degree for the faculty candidates. Today, in pursuing a career in academics, PhD often becomes a pre-requisite. These candidates needed to complete a research based course of study, though only a handful of such people, who receive research doctorates, would get the enrollment as faculty members. There are occasions when some individuals get the award of "honorary doctorates". These are awarded to those who have been deemed worthy of receiving such award, as a special recognition for their scholarly work or other contributions to the university or society.

The Doctor of Philosophy, in short called PhD, is the most common type of research doctorate awarded. There are certain British universities, such as, Oxford, Sussex, and York, refer to the doctorate degree as D.Phil. The course period for such a degree may vary considerably. For instance, in the UK and USA, the minimum time taken to complete the course is three years, the pre-requisite being a Masters degree. There are some trends now, where students scoring first class honours in Bachelor's degree may proceed straight into a Ph.D program. While minimum time required to complete the doctorate course is 3 years, many take longer time, anywhere between 5 to 10 years to finally complete the course. As from late 1990s, the UK research council has introduced penalty for those who does not submit the mandatory thesis work within 4 years from the initial registration, while attending a full time course. The penalty would mean stopping of the funding for the research. For such degrees, coursework is increasingly becoming mandatory all over the world. This has been introduced in USA, with research doctorate requiring two to three years of coursework, and a minimum of three years of research.

In applying to some of the British universities for PhD studies in computer science, the student would require to have at least B.Sc or M.Sc degree in subjects related to computer science. Generally, an application to one of those universities, such as, The University of Liverpool, a student is required to include with his application, a short write-up on the subject matter, elaborating the research interest that the student may have. There is a mandatory requirement for the student to mention the choice of the research group that he wish to be in, from the groups available within the university. This group should be closely related to the student's intended research activity.

Since finding a supervisor for the intended research work sometimes becomes a problem by the university, it is advisable that the student, at first, enquires with the relevant department regarding availability of such staff with the university, whose research work closely resembles the one that the student intends to do in his or her PhD. This way the student might be able to get in touch with a potential supervisor.

A professional doctorate is entirely different from a research doctorate. A professional doctorate also has the name "doctor", and this is used in fields, such as, audiology, chiropractic, dentistry, law, medicine, occupational therapy, optometry, osteopathy, pharmacy, physical therapy, podiatry, psychology, veterinary medicine, and many others. It is to be noted that professionals in this field hold, what is called first-professional degrees, and these are not the research degrees that we discussed in the previous paragraphs. This type of a doctorate is not equivalent to a PhD. In here one does not need to submit a thesis on a research work. However, in medicine, most medical students conduct some form of academic research work, and write a paper on their research, before residency. The minimum term for such a degree, viz., M.D and J.D, is 3 years, after post-secondary education. The length of term is the same as the research degree.

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