Doctor Of Philosophy Can Be Obtained

Doctor of Philosophy is often abbreviated as Ph. D. which means "teacher of philosophy" in Latin. Any way you slice it, earning a Ph. D. is the culmination of years of hard work and study. Many college professors earn Ph. Ds in their fields of study but you can generally only earn a Ph. D. after earning both an undergraduate degree and a master's degree. But the Ph. D. is not just a degree for college professors. Many Ph. D's go on to successful careers in government, corporations, and as entrepreneurs.

The requirements for earning a Ph. D. differ depending on which part of the world you earn it in but in almost all cases Ph. D. candidates must write a research paper called a thesis or dissertation on a relevant topic of their choosing. But it's not over when you turn in the thesis. Your dissertation will then be reviewed by a panel of experts assigned by the university. The moment of truth arrives when you defend your thesis against the experts who will use their vast knowledge of the subject area to poke holes in your ideas that you must plug to their satisfaction before your Ph. D. is granted. Generally a 2 to 3 year period of study on the prospective Ph. D's field of interest must be completed while writing the thesis. As you can see, earning a Ph. D. is no small endeavor.

A common Ph. D. requirement at most college and universities it the successful completion of a minimum number of advanced study courses relevant to the field of study but even that Ph. D. requirement varies by country. All colleges and universities in the US and Canada require completion of advanced courses but the UK has no such requirement because they allow a much greater degree of specialization in Ph. D. study so there may not be an abundance of advanced courses available in certain highly specialized areas of study.

The history of the Ph. D. dates back to the Middle Ages when European colleges and universities broadly placed all areas of study other than those in the areas of theology, law, and medicine under the category of philosophy. Yale University was the first American university to grant Ph. D. degrees in 1861 to students who completed advanced study, wrote a thesis, and successfully defended it against a panel of experts.

Gradually, the Ph. D. spread to Canada in the early 1900's and then to the UK in the 1920s. Some UK universities as well as a few in New Zealand still use the older D.Phil. abbreviation as an indication of achieving the Doctor of Philosophy degree. While it is universally known and accepted that the Ph.D. is a highly regarded degree, the specific requirements for earning a Ph.D. from a college or university vary from one English speaking country to the next.

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