PhD dissertation lengths

Students in North American PhD programs normally start their dissertations in their third year.

Their counterparts in European-style PhD programs normally don’t take any courses and in theory start their dissertations in their first year.

Students in both styles seem to take at least 4 years to complete their PhDs.

So do the students in European-style PhD programs end up writing a longer dissertation?

 

In general the answer is yes.

 

Then wouldn’t there appear to be potential for preference of one type over the other? e.g., research intensive universities preferring European PhDs due to longer dissertations (and presumably richer content)?

 

Perhaps, in some cases.

 

Yes. "Taught" Ph.D. degrees (coursework plus thesis) result in a thesis (or dissertation) about 50,000 words in length, or less. The "big book" Ph.D., where the student is evaluated solely on the value of the thesis normally has a 100,000-word limit on the thesis. That's about 250 and 500 pages, respectively, exclusive of references, charts, tables, exhibits, etc. Remember, those are limits, not goals. Many theses/dissertations come in at considerably fewer words.

Preference? Typically, countries with "big book" systems require the thesis-only approach for the Ph.D. Countries with "taught" Ph.D. programs require the "little book" approach. Finally, countries with "big book" Ph.D. programs are now offering "little book/taught" programs for other doctoral designations (like the DBA or the DSoSci). Students at these schools often have the option, but there are different rules. For example, the Ph.D. "big book" will often require on-campus residency and have longer time-in-program minimums. Many people are under the misperception that the thesis-only "big book" approach will be more flexible in terms of time-in-program and on-campus residency, but this is often not the case. (The presumption is that the candidate will require more, not less, supervision.)

A more interesting difference than length is content. Quite simply, you can't fit into 50K words what will fit into 100k. So what's different? Normally, both types of theses require original, significant contributions to the academic discipline. But the contribution can be smaller and less-complex in the "little book" thesis. (There are even "little book" non-Ph.D. doctorates that will permit the student to take an applied approach to the thesis.)

Got it? Read "How to Get a Ph.D." by Pugh and Phillips for more.

 

I believe it also varies with the type of research. I have been told that qualitative based dissertations are often longer than quantitative based dissertations.

 

I've seen people earned their PhDs by writing 3 extended essays rather than a dissertation. So how common is this approach and how is it perceived by hiring committees? Any inherent drawbacks?

 

Generally, yes. But they still must stay within the word limits set by the institution, unless waived. (Qualitative dissertations can run 500+ pages routinely.)

 

Qualitative methods also seem rather convoluted to me, especially in the evaluation of the data. I learned another important thing from the Qualitative Methods class I just finished...I don't like it. Too wordy and nebulous for me.

 

Doesn't have to be. Qualitative methods allow for very rich data--and, thus very complex theories and/or answered research questions--to emerge. Quantitative methods require tiny steps in an attempt to support already-proffered theories. But qualitative methods can bring about data-rich theories (see grounded theory, phenomenology, ethnography, case study, and hermeneutics for examples), theories not based on conjecture and then tested with narrowly designed statistics but, rather, based on rich, thick, compelling data.

Qualitative research can be as original, useful, and empirical as quantitative research. It can get at questions and problems simply not solvable by statistical testing. Not only is it as rigorous, it is a lot harder that quantitative methods. Some people avoid quantitative methods in their dissertations because math phobia, instead opting for qualitative methods because it looks easier. Both notions are mistaken. Quantitative methods are easy and the math involved would hardly challenge an 8th grader. Qualitative methods, on the other hard, are extremely rigorous and require the collection, analysis, and interpretation of huge amounts of data.

"Too wordy and nebulous"? No way.

(By the way, one should be proficient in many methods. The research problem should drive the method, not the other way around.)

 

I have never seen this in Ph.D program, but Doctorate (Computer Science, Management) degrees at Colorado Technical University require either 3 extended/published essays or a dissertation.

 

My philosophy is make it long enough to get the job done, but not a word longer! My thesis has been approved at 241 pages all in (mixed methodology qual and quant), but there are others from my program that are hundreds of pages longer, and some shorter.

 

One way to find typical dissertation page count is to visit Dissertation Express.

I did a quick search and came up with page count for different academic areas (Mean page count, standard deviation, Range) for the first nine dissertations listed for each area.

Engineering 208, 90, 99-357
Physics 193, 87, 114-342
Math 159, 42, 122-230
Business 217, 67, 113-289.

 

Page counts for humanities and social science dissertations tend to be longer than math and science dissertations.

 

Ted's right, of course. Explanation: students in humanities and social sciences are more likely to employ qualitative methods which, because of the need for very rich descriptions as data, are necessarily longer. There are math and science dissertations approved at shorter than 100 pages.

 

My thread was intended to show the OP how to find dissertation info for whatever his academic area is. Not many technical oriented people on here but lots of business majors.

 

The PhD in this country is a thesis only option generally. it can be a PhD by publication which is a rarity, but even this frequently requires a connecting exogensis. The fact that there are not any courses is probably a little misleading as frequently there will be readings assigned by the supervisor and various other tasks that mirror a courselike approach. These are informal in the sense that they do not show up on transcript but if the supervisor requires them then they need to be done.

The PhD is generally a lonely activity with the librarian and the supervisor the centrepiece of student life. PhD might be "on campus", but in reality there is little need to actually be on campus. The supervision visits may occur on campus and probably do more often than not, but may also be via skype or some other method. In Australia, to my knowledge, no degree records its mode of learning on the face of the diploma.

The acceptance into the program requires the usual rites of passage, but it also requires a plenty well thought through topic that can be converted into a research proposal. PhD's in Australia for local students (not sure about foreign students) are "tuition fees free" as the govt. picks up the tab. It does not for other Doctorates, but does give student loans.

The dissertation is usually 80,000 - 100,000 words. The medium can offer in some cases such as the fine arts or some physical sciences. Other Doctorates usually require some course work, 50,000 word dissertations, and really mirror the US PhD, however, these here are called professional Doctorates and rank lower in the academic pecking order. Professional Doctorates are more highy sought in industry than academia.

 

Mine was around 100 pages.
I love this little trivia bit: Albert Einstein's 1906 dissertation, A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions, was 24 pages long: http://e-collection.library.ethz.ch/eserv/eth:30378/eth-30378-01.pdf
It was based on the least interesting and most conventional bit of his 1905 work, and the main result (an estimation of Avogadro's number) was off. Still, it has some new mathematics that was widely used (and cited) in fields like engineering and diary science.

 

Not diary, "dairy".

 

Hi! I'm resurrecting this thread. I just found out the page requirement for my PhD thesis: between 380 and 480 pages. My field is in philosophy. Dr. Rich, you're right about the supervision. Although my PhD is dissertation only, my University takes supervision seriously, almost to a fault. I'm loving the program though. It certainly fits my lifestyle: more than mid-career, family man, love reading philosophy, and always on the go.