PhD Doctorate Degree

PhD, or Ph.D., stands for Doctor of philosophy is an advanced postgraduate degree and is the highest academic degree awarded American universities, Canadian universities, British university, Australian universities, European universities and other universities worldwide. The PhD degree is sometimes referred to as doctorate degree or research degree

Students are awarded the PhD degree on the basis of successfully demonstrating the mastery of the subject and the ability to perform and present scholarly research. The original research undertaken during a PhD degree is known as the doctoral thesis or doctoral dissertation.

The PhD degree is taught through all study modes including full time study, part time study, online study and distance learning. PhD degrees taught through part time and full time study are academic PhD degrees while most of the online PhDs are professional PhD programs.

PhD admissions to American universities, Canadian university, British universities, Australian universities and European universities require the students to submit a 2500 words research proposal as part of the PhD admissions application.

Students applying for admission to a PhD at accredited universities need to prepare PhD research proposal of 2500 words as part of the PhD admissions application process. International students need to prove their English language competency through taking the IELTS test of TOEFL test or an equivalent English language qualification. Other documents required include a bachelor degree and master degree certificates and transcripts, 2 academic recommendation letters, personal statement, and a completed PhD application form.

A full time doctorate degrees or PhD degrees can take from 3 to 6 years depending on the study destination, type of university and PhD supervisor. Duration also depends on the PhD topic undertaken and the quality of the research thesis submitted. PhD taught by British universities and most European universities takes 3 years on full time mode and mostly research. While a PhD taught by American universities and Canadian universities takes between four and six years and combines taught courses and research.

The PhD is taught in many academic specialization and study fields including:

PhD academic specializations
PhD title abbreviations


British Doctoral Degrees
There are 2 types of Doctoral degrees offered by British universities, the PhD degree and the New Route PhD degree. Some UK universities call the New Route PhD, Integrated PhD. The PhD degree takes 3 years to complete by full time study while the New Route PhD takes fours to complete by full time study. The PhD Degree

PhD degree awarded by research based UK universities takes between three to four years to complete as full time study, between four to six years to complete as part time study or distance learning. The Ph.D. (called a DPhil at a few universities) is fairly common for a student to start on a research master's degree and then proceed to the university's PhD degree, with time spent on the master's degree counting towards PhD requirements. The traditional British PhD taught at British universities has less coursework and more independent research than the American PhD taught at American Universities in the USA. Increasingly, though, PhDs in the UK include a taught research training component such Research Methodologies in the first year of the PhD degree. Most British universities require PhD students to produce a thesis consisting of 70,000 to 100,000 words which is normally supervised by appointed tutor.

The New Rout PhD
The New Rout PhD taught by UK universities which is called Integrated PhD by some British universities combines both taught courses and research and takes four-year to complete by full time study. The New Route PhD course is currently offered by 34 British universities and aims to prepare students for careers not just in academia field but also in other public and private sector fields. In the New Route PhD degree students undertake advanced independent research, but have more opportunities to take taught courses and study across disciplines than do traditional PhD students.

To apply for a PhD or New Route PhD, students would need to submit a brief research proposal (roughly 2000 worlds) outlining the research topic or research subject which will be submitted to the university along with the admissions application form and academic certificates. Based on this research proposal the university will appoint a suitable tutor as a PhD supervisor who will guide the student throughout the duration of the PhD or the New Route PhD.

PhD application process

PhD degree admissions criteria

The PhD application steps

The PhD application process
The admissions office will send your research proposal along with your full documents to the different supervisors in the relevant department. The research proposal will be read by the different supervisors in the department. If one of the supervisors in the department likes you research and agrees to supervise it, he or she will then inform the admissions office. The admissions office will in turn write you a letter of acceptance. If none of the supervisors in the department accept your research proposal, the admissions office will then write you a rejection letter.

The length of the response to you will depend on how quickly the supervisors in the department read you research topic and how quickly one of them agrees to supervise your research. A well written research proposal is critical in receiving a quick and a positive decision on your application. On average it normally takes between 7 weeks to 12 weeks to receive a response from the university.

A PhD application can take up to 3 months to process and therefore an early application is highly recommended.

How to prepare a PhD research proposal
An outline research proposal in about 1,500 words is required before an application to read for PhD can be considered. An outline research proposal from applicants for a PhD degree, should state the following:


Why you need to prepare a PhD research proposal
The purpose of your research proposal is to give the adviser, supervisor or tutor an idea of what your research topic is and how you will conduct your study, what your statement of the problem is, what you are trying to prove and the discussion of the available literature of that topic. The supervisor needs to approve your research proposal before the university can make you an offer or a letter of acceptance. The supervisor will look into the following areas when reading your research proposal: