Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D., an abbreviation for the Latin "Philosophi¾
Doctor", or D.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 a learned field. 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.

Nowadays, the title Ph.D. is granted to a scientist or scholar who has
undertaken original research in the sciences or humanities. (In the U.S.
there are often special divisions of universities, called graduate schools,
which issue these degrees; in Australia, there is normally no division
between undergraduate and postgraduate parts of the university.) 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 in this level complete a Ph.D. degree, no matter what subject area
they are doing research in. In other countries, these degrees are
distinguished by subject area ("Doctor of Natural Sciences", "Doctor of
Social Sciences", "Dr. med."). (However, even in the U.S., there are
sometimes separate degrees, e.g. Th.D. for theology, J.D. for law). In some
countries, the corresponding degree is simply called "Doctor". Johns Hopkins
University was the first university in the United States to confer doctoral
degrees.

PhDs 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.

Sometimes a university grants an honorary PhD called honoris causa (Latin
for caused by honor), or Dr. h. c., but more commonly higher doctorates are
used for this purpose.

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