• Question: what is a phd?

    Asked by sikhsoldier to Steve, Michaela, Yvette on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by nightthorne.
    • Photo: Steven Kiddle

      Steven Kiddle answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      A PhD is a doctorate of philosophy. In the old days, all research was considered a form of philosophy, and those who were good enough were made doctors (not the NHS kind though.) It’s the last qualification you can get in terms of education, so I’ve done GCSEs, a-levels, a BSc (uni degree), a MSc (another uni degree) and im working on my phd.

    • Photo: Michaela Livingstone

      Michaela Livingstone answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      PhD, which means Doctorate of philosophy is a qualification you can get AFTER you’ve graduated from an ‘undergrad’ degree, like a bachelor of science, or a bachelor of art, so it’s known as a post-graduate (ie after graduation) qualification. In science, at least, it’s more like an apprenticeship because it doesn’t involve doing exams and learning lots of set things from a course, which is more like what an undergrad degree is. Instead, you do experiments, and generally work as a researcher, which involves writing reports about what you’ve done and what the results mean now and then, and if you do enough you can write a paper to be published so other scientists know what you’ve been doing. In the UK they usually last 3-4 years (depending on how much money you can get to do it will mostly affect how long you do it).

    • Photo: Yvette Wilson

      Yvette Wilson answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      A PhD is 3-4 years research after your degree. You get funded to research a specific project and are supervised by an experienced group leader. You then have to right up your results in a thesis.

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