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The doctor’s degree represents the most advanced earned degree
conferred by U.S. institutions, or indeed by those of any country. In the academic sense, a doctor is an individual in any faculty or branch of learning who has attained to the highest degree conferred by a university. Doctor’s degrees in the United States are of two distinct types professional or practitioner’s degrees, and research degrees.
The former represent advanced training for the practice of various professions, chiefly in medicine and law. The principal ones are Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Dental science of Dental Surgery, Doctor of
Veterinary Medicine, Doctor of Pharmacy, and Doctor of Jurisprudence. These degrees carry on implication of advanced research.
Quite different in character are the research doctorates representing prolonged periods of advanced study, usually at least three years beyond the baccalaureate, accompanied by a dissertation designed to be a substantial contribution to the advancement of knowledge. The most important of
these is the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. D.), which no longer implies knowledge of philosophy, but which represents advanced research in any major field of knowledge. In the early 1970’s 240 graduate schools offered it. It was first awarded by Yale University in 1861 to three young men.
It was modeled on the doctorate conferred by German universities. For more than half a century prior to 1861, young men desiring the most
advanced training in scholarship attended the principal German and
occasionally other European universities to secure their Ph. D’s.
Second in importance and much more recent as a research degree is the Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) currently offered by 108 institutions.
It was first awarded by Harvard in 1920, but was preceded by the
equivalent Doctor of Pedagogy first conferred by New York University in 1891. The only other earned doctorates of the research type currently conferred by 10 or more institutions are the Doctor of the Science of Law and the Doctor of Business Administration.
At present doctorates of the research type are earned by about 28,000 individuals annually, of which about 14 percent are women. Microfilm copies of about two thirds of the dissertations written for these degrees are available at a modest price.
Abstracts of them are published in the monthly issues of Dissertation Abstracts.
3. Answer the questions:
1. What types of degrees do you know?
2. What do the Bachelor’s degree represent?
3. What do Master’s degree represent?
4. What do Doctor’s degree represent?
5. What is the best-known academic degree?
6. How Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees are awarded in frequency?
7. What are the two types of Doctor’s degrees in the United States?
8. Is there Bachelor’s degree in our country?
9. Where can you get Master’s degree in our country?
10. How much time is necessary to study to get Master’s degree in our country?
11. Is it necessary to write any scientific work during master’s course?
12. What degree do you have?
13. What degree are you planning to have?
14. What exams are necessary to pass to enter master’s course in your Institute?
15. What subjects are taught at master’s course in your Institute?
16. What is Master’s degree for you?
