• Question: What does PhD stand for?

    Asked by anon-251693 to Louisa, Tiffany on 27 Apr 2020. This question was also asked by anon-257617.
    • Photo: Louisa Zolkiewski

      Louisa Zolkiewski answered on 27 Apr 2020:

      PhD stands for “doctorate of philosophy”. It’s the highest level of degree you can get at university and it gets awarded when you show you can you can think about a very specific topic in lots of detail. Usually it takes 4 years to do lots of reading and experiments then you write about everything you have done and what you think it means and why it might be important in a big book. Then you have an exam where two people will ask you lots of questions about what you have done and why you did things the way you did them. After that you might have to make some edits to your book and then you get the PhD degree and you get the title Dr.

Comments

  • Photo: Gabriela

    Gabriela commented on :

    It stands for Doctor of Philosophy and is the highest university degree conferred after a course of study. These days, the route to a PhD is usually undergraduate studies (3 years full time in the U.K.), a Masters degree (1 year full time in the U.K.) and then PhD (3 years full time in the U.K.). The Masters degree can also be combined with an undergraduate degree (making it a 4 year course), or with the PhD (making that a 3 year course). A Masters degree combined with a PhD is sometimes referred to as a Doctoral Training Programme.

  • Photo: Donna

    Donna commented on :

    Doctor of Philosophy… but it means that you have carried out a research project for 3 years (UK) and contributed new scientific knowledge. After you get a PhD, you get to call yourself Dr.