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Postgraduate education

Doctorates. These are often further divided into academic and professional doctorates. An academic doctorate can be awarded as a Doctor of Philosophy degree (from Latin Doctor philosophiæ; Ph.D. or D.Phil.) or as a Doctor of Science degree (from Latin Doctor scientiæ; D.Sc.). The Doctor of Science degree can also be awarded in specific fields, such as a Doctor of Science in Mathematics degree (from Latin Doctor scientiarum mathematic arum; D.Sc.Math.), a Doctor of Agricultural Science degree (from Latin Doctor scientiarum agrariarum; D.Sc.Agr.), a Doctor of Business Administration degree (D.B.A.), etc. In some parts of Europe, doctorates are divided into the Doctor of Philosophy degree or "junior doctorate", and the "higher doctorates" such as the Doctor of Science degree, which is generally awarded to highly distinguished professors. A doctorate is the terminal degree in most fields. In the United States, there is little distinction between a Doctor of Philosophy degree and a Doctor of Science degree. In the UK, Doctor of Philosophy degrees are often equivalent to 540 CATS credits or 270 ECTS European credits, but this is not always the case as the credit structure of doctoral degrees is not officially defined.

Degree requirements

Additionally, doctoral students who have advanced to candidacy but not filed a dissertation ("ABD," for "all but dissertation") often receive master's degrees and an additional master's called a Master of Philosophy, or M.Phil., or C.Phil. "Candidate in Philosophy" degree. The master's component of a doctorate program often requires one or two years, and some students, because doctoral programs are sometimes better-funded, apply for doctoral programs while only intending to earn a master's degree. This is generally not acceptable and, if a student's advisor learns of the student's plans, can result in early termination.

Many graduate programs require students to pass one or several examinations in order to demonstrate their competence as scholars.[36] In some departments, a comprehensive examination is often required in the first year of doctoral study, and is designed to test a student's background undergraduate-level knowledge. Examinations of this type are more common in the sciences and some social sciences, and relatively unknown in most humanities disciplines.

Some graduate students perform teaching duties, often serving as graders, tutors, or teaching assistants. In some departments, they can be promoted to Lecturer status, a position that comes with more responsibilities.

Doctoral students generally spend roughly their first two to three years doing coursework, and begin research by their second year if not before. Many master's and all specialist students will perform research culminating in a paper, presentation, and defense of their research. This is called the master's thesis (or, for Educational Specialist students, the specialist paper). However, many US master's degree programs do not require a master's thesis, focusing instead primarily on course work or on "practicals" or "workshops". Such "real-world" experience may typically require a candidate work on a project alone or in a team as a consultant, or consultants, for an outside entity approved or selected by the academic institution, and under faculty supervision.

In the second and third years of study, doctoral programs often require students to pass more examinations.[36] Programs often require a Qualifying Examination ("Quals"), a Ph.D. Candidacy Examination ("Candidacy"), or a General Examination ("Generals") designed to test the students' grasp of a broad sample of their discipline, or one or several Special Field Examinations ("Specials") which test students in their narrower selected areas of specialty within the discipline. If these examinations are held orally, they may be known colloquially as "orals". For some social science and many humanities disciplines, where graduate students may or may not have studied the discipline at the undergraduate level, these exams will be the first set, and be based either on graduate coursework or specific preparatory reading (sometimes up to a year's work in reading). In all cases, comprehensive exams are normally both stressful and time-consuming and must be passed to be allowed to proceed on to the thesis. Passing such examinations allows the student to stay, begin doctoral research, and rise to the status of a doctoral candidate while failing usually results in the student leaving the program or re-taking the test after some time has passed (usually a semester or a year). Some schools have an intermediate category, passing at the master's level, which allows the student to leave with a master's without having completed a master's thesis.

For the next several years, the doctoral candidate primarily performs his or her research. Usually this lasts three to eight years, though a few finish more quickly and some take substantially longer. In total, the typical doctoral degree takes between four and eight years from entering the program to completion though this time varies depending upon the department, thesis topic, and many other factors.

For example, astronomy degrees take five to six years on average, but observational astronomy degrees take six to seven due to limiting factors of weather, while theoretical astronomy degrees take five. Though there is substantial variation among universities, departments, and individuals, humanities and social science doctorates on average take somewhat longer to complete than natural science doctorates. These differences are due to the differing nature of research between the humanities and some social sciences and the natural sciences, and to the differing expectations of the discipline in coursework, languages and length of thesis. However, time required to complete a doctorate also varies according to the candidate's abilities and choice of research. Some students may also choose to remain in a program if they fail to win an academic position, particularly in disciplines with a tight job market; by remaining a student, they can retain access to libraries and university facilities, while also retaining an academic affiliation, which can be essential for conferences and job-searches.

Traditionally, doctoral programs were only intended to last three to four years and, in some disciplines (primarily the natural sciences), with a helpful advisor, and a light teaching load, it is possible for the degree to be completed in that amount of time. However, increasingly many disciplines, including most humanities, set their requirements for coursework, languages and the expected extent of thesis research by the assumption that students will take five years minimum or six to seven years on average; competition for jobs within these fields also raises expectations on the length and quality of theses considerably.

In some disciplines, doctoral programs can average seven to ten years. Archaeology, which requires long periods of research, tends towards the longer end of this spectrum. The increase in length of degree is a matter of great concern for both students and universities, though there is much disagreement on potential solutions to this problem.

There are also discipline-specific differences. A person applying for a doctoral program in Biblical studies or theology from a seminary or theological school must already hold a first professional degree in the field, known as the Master of Divinity degree (M.Div.). The M.Div. is a three-year master's program, however, a thesis is usually not required before completion. The M.Div. is the entry degree for the Doctor of Ministry degree (D.Min) or the Ph.D.

The D.Min degree is a second professional degree, which includes two years of study and one to two years of research and a project in the candidates local area of work. The Ph.D. degree in this area follows other Ph.D. programs with two years of seminars, comprehensive exams (usually not oral), and then if a person passes the exam, a dissertation. An alternative terminal degree after the M.Div. is a Master's of Theology (Th.M). a Th.M is one year of seminary study followed by a shorter thesis (usually around one hundred pages) that does not necessarily have to be a unique contribution to the field (unlike a dissertation). A person who fails the comprehensive exam in this discipline may also be awarded a Th.M.

Funding

Many departments, especially those in which students have research or teaching responsibilities, offer tuition-forgiveness and a stipend that pays for most expenses. At some elite universities, there may be a minimum stipend established for all Ph.D. students, as well as a tuition waiver. The terms of these stipends vary greatly, and may consist of a scholarship or fellowship, followed by teaching responsibilities. At many elite universities, these stipends have been increasing, in response both to student pressure and, especially, to competition among the elite universities for graduate students.

In some fields, research positions are more coveted than teaching positions because student researchers are typically paid to work on the dissertation they are required to complete anyway, while teaching is generally considered a distraction from one's work. Research positions are more typical of science disciplines; they are relatively uncommon in humanities disciplines, and where they exist, they rarely allow the student to work on their own research.

Departments often have money for limited discretionary funding to supplement minor expenses such as research trips and travel to conferences.

A few students can attain outside fellowships such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Physical Science Consortium (NPSC). Funding differs greatly by departments and universities; some universities give five years of full funding to all Ph.D. students, though often with a teaching requirement attached; other universities do not.

Foreign students are typically funded the same way as domestic (US) students, although federally subsidized student and parent loans and work-study assistance are generally limited to US citizens and nationals, permanent residents, and approved refugees.[37] Moreover, some funding sources (such as many NSF fellowships) may only be awarded to domestic students. Other factors contributing to possible financial difficulties include high costs to visit their families back home, supporting one's family who is not allowed to work due to immigration laws, tuition that is steep by world standards, and large fees: visa fees by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, surveillance fees (such as Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems, or SEVIS[38]) by the United States Congress and the United States Department of Homeland Security.

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• Burns

• Curiously, Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin continue to award Master of Arts (M.A.) degrees to undergraduates without any further study seven years after matriculation. These universities also award Bachelor's degrees for some forms of postgraduate study (e.g., see BCL)

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