Difference between PhD and DPhil

tonyj

Is there a difference between a PhD and a DPhil? Or any 'Doctor of...' doctorate

I know this might sound like a silly question, but can you still call yourself Dr. with any doctorate degree from a respectable institution?

(I know, I know... the vanity of it all... :rolleyes: )

Tom Dunne

I think a PhD and a DPhil are the same thing (PhD = Doctor of Philosophy, DPhil=Doctor of Philososphy).

The "other" doctorates, or professionnal doctorates as they are known, do entitle you to call yourself Doctor. So when you are on the plane and they ask "is there a doctor on board" you know what to do....

From speaking to people with PhDs, the professional doctorates are not as highly regarded as traditional PhDs, but they are at the same academic level.

tonyj

Thanks for the reply Tom.

How'd you guess? - The only reason I want a PhD is so I can push people out of the way and say "Let me through, I'm a doctor!"

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

yep - PhD and DPhil are exactly the same...

claire h

tonyj wrote:

Is there a difference between a PhD and a DPhil? Or any 'Doctor of...' doctorate

I know this might sound like a silly question, but can you still call yourself Dr. with any doctorate degree from a respectable institution?

(I know, I know... the vanity of it all... :rolleyes: )

PhD and DPhil are the same. DPhils are only given out by a handful of places, like York and Oxford and a couple more, I think, but they're the same. Doctor of Letters (or whatever) is a higher doctorate (i.e. above the PhD), as far as I know, and you get it for years of research/publications etc, it's not as cut-and-dry as the process for getting a PhD.

And, yep, you get to tick the little 'Dr' box on forms where they ask for your title, regardless of whether it's a PhD or MD.

dh2007

If you get a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) you can call yourself a doctor. A DBA doesn't have the same prestige of a PhD though.

2Scoops

Just become a celebrity of some sort and wait for the 'honorary' doctorates to start piling up! Easy.

Esmereldina

2Scoops wrote:

Just become a celebrity of some sort and wait for the 'honorary' doctorates to start piling up! Easy.

Or you could buy one online. I think you can pay about 5000e for a PhD from one of those not at all dodgy 'No Plagiarism guaranteed' type of 'companies'. And it only takes them 3 or 4 months too to write it for you too... now why exactly am I wasting 3 years on mine :rolleyes:

r3nu4l

A guy in my old lab had a DPhil from Oxford. There is also the D.Sc which is basically the same as what Claire H was talking about. This is usually awarded only by the most learned bodies such as the Royal Irish Acadamey or the Institute of Biology (in the case of Biologists obviously).

These are awarded only to those who have made massive advances in Science and have achieved major publications and therefore influence in their field.
An interesting article on the title Doctor can be found here. It's Wikipedia so I can't vouch for its accuracy.

hivizman

Esmereldina wrote:

Or you could buy one online. I think you can pay about 5000e for a PhD from one of those not at all dodgy 'No Plagiarism guaranteed' type of 'companies'. And it only takes them 3 or 4 months too to write it for you too... now why exactly am I wasting 3 years on mine :rolleyes:

Yes, but would you fool the examiners?

On the theme, I understand that the University of the West of England gives students who write a full original thesis a PhD but staff members who submit their collected publications as a thesis get a DPhil. In most British universities where staff can submit their publications for a doctorate, they get either a standard PhD or (usually if they have a PhD already) a 'higher doctorate' such as a DSc or DLitt.

In Germany and Italy, students who managed to survive to the end of the six or seven years of a full degree programme would graduate with the title of Doktor or Dottore, and in Germany academics have to write a second thesis after five to seven years called the Habilitationsschrift if they want to get promoted.

mrac

btw does anyone know the difference between a BE and a BEng ?

claire h

mrac wrote:

btw does anyone know the difference between a BE and a BEng ?

As far as I know there's no difference - they're both 'bachelor of engineering' degrees.

mdebets

hivizman wrote:

In Germany and Italy, students who managed to survive to the end of the six or seven years of a full degree programme would graduate with the title of Doktor or Dottore,

I don't know about Italy,but that's not true for Germany. You get you Diplom or Magister (equivalent of a Master) after 4/5 (or more if needed )years. You then have to do your standard 3 years PhD.

hivizman

mdebets wrote:

I don't know about Italy,but that's not true for Germany. You get you Diplom or Magister (equivalent of a Master) after 4/5 (or more if needed )years. You then have to do your standard 3 years PhD.

That's why I wrote in the past tense. The people I know who went through the German university system and came out with the title of Doktor are now in their 50s, and they certainly saw the educational process as a continuous one rather than one involving stages. But things have been changing in recent years as a result of international influences and the Bologna agreement, and there is much more use of the PhD degree. A good explanation of the current German system, which describes the traditional "Dr." as well as the more modern "PhD", is available at:

http://www.daad.de/deutschland/forschung/promotion/04670.en.html

(DAAD is the German Academic Exchange Service).

An interesting article in the International Herald Tribune suggests that the title of "dottore" is now available in Italy for anyone who completes even a three-year degree:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/01/18/news/titles.php

Some Italian universities are awarding a PhD degree and/or using the title "Dottore di Ricerca".

On visits to Italy, I always get the sense that professional-looking men of a certain age are called "Dottore" almost as a mark of respect rather than necessarily because they have a particular degree.

Hopefully, the Bologna process will lead to some uniformity of degree titles within the EU.

mdebets

hivizman wrote:

That's why I wrote in the past tense. The people I know who went through the German university system and came out with the title of Doktor are now in their 50s, and they certainly saw the educational process as a continuous one rather than one involving stages.

Are they Medical Doctors? That's the only PhD in Germany were you can do your PhD thesis in parallel to your normal Diplom (Master). For all other courses you have to first do your Diplom/Magister (Master) and only then you can do your PhD. It definitley is and was (at least for the last 50 years) a 2 step process. Before the mid 1950's, at least for the Humanities and Arts it was a 1 step process, as the PhD was the only degree in these subjects you could get.
There is of course the problem that in Germany, at least for many of the Humanities/Arts subject you need a PhD to get a decent (or in some cases any) job at all and it therefore might seem to be just a 1 step process as you have to have a PhD.

hivizman

mdebets wrote:

Are they Medical Doctors? That's the only PhD in Germany were you can do your PhD thesis in parallel to your normal Diplom (Master). For all other courses you have to first do your Diplom/Magister (Master) and only then you can do your PhD. It definitley is and was (at least for the last 50 years) a 2 step process. Before the mid 1950's, at least for the Humanities and Arts it was a 1 step process, as the PhD was the only degree in these subjects you could get.
There is of course the problem that in Germany, at least for many of the Humanities/Arts subject you need a PhD to get a decent (or in some cases any) job at all and it therefore might seem to be just a 1 step process as you have to have a PhD.

I've been able to check with a friend in Germany. She said that she had got a Diplom Betriebswirtschaftslehre on the way to the Doktor degree, but because she was always aiming towards the doctorate she didn't think that the Diplom was all that significant. But she said that for many of her fellow students the Diplom was their target so they left university when they passed this. So I've obviously misunderstood the position in Germany.

Incidentally, I used the Deutsche Bahn online booking service recently, and when it asked for a title (in addition to "Mr" or "Ms") the only options that it offered me were "Dr.", "Prof." or "Prof. Dr."