Doctoral Degree Differences

Because I've done two of these, and because they were different in every conceivable aspect, I thought I'd post this chart. I'll be happy to discuss these--or anything else--if it should strike interest. (Sorry that I couldn't make it bigger; opening it in another browser window or another program should help.)

 

I have one question. In view of your experience do you think it would be useful for someone to take a course or set of courses (like a grad cert) in research methodology as a prep for a doctoral degree?

 

Yes. There are two basic types of academic doctorates: taught and research. Taught doctorates have a coursework component, while research doctorates are judged only on the thesis. In the U.S., all doctorates are taught. In the UK, the PhD is typically a research degree, while professional doctorates (like the EdD, DBA, and my own DSocSci) are taught; they have a set of courses and a smaller dissertation. (The PhD thesis is about 80K words while the taught degree's thesis is about 50K words.)

In taught degrees, there is always a research methods section. Thus, one doesn't have a choice. But in the research degree (the PhD in the UK), the candidate has to demonstrate a good understanding of research methods just to be admitted to the degree because admission requires a full research proposal (including proposed research methods). That's one reason why seekers of the PhD are often admitted initially as MPhil students and, after submitting an acceptable proposal, are 'upgraded' to the PhD. What are students doing in the meantime? Learning research methods, of course. That's why you have to be careful about assuming a PhD done by research is non-residential. Your advisor may decide to have you take some research methods classes or seminars on campus--or any of a number of other on-campus activities.

This was a real (and legitimate) criticism of Union back in the day. They didn't have a specific requirement for doctoral learners to go through a learning process for research methods. This led to some really spotty dissertations, IMHO. IIRC, that's been fixed. (I did a quantitative dissertation using inferential statistical methods, methods I was teaching in an MBA program and learned in my own MBA, so I was fine.)

At Leicester, in order to get my thesis proposal approved (which had a research methods section), I had to agree to write a separate paper for my advisor's review regarding my intended research method. That was because I chose a particularly difficult method, grounded theory. I wrote that paper after my proposal was approved, but before I conducted my research.

NB: I also had to write a separate paper on whether or not my chosen topic--the phenomenon of the Chief Learning Officer--was an appropriate and researchable topic for a doctoral thesis. I had to argue that the CLO was a 'thing.' Fortunately, both of these papers were easily slid into my thesis with little change.

So, to your original question, you really don't have a choice--you'll have to demonstrate your research skills long before you submit your thesis and, thus, will have to develop them beforehand.

 

Yes, I agree! The professional doctorate I earned here in the USA was mostly coursework, with a 6 credit hour dissertation component. The South African PhD (Higher education in South Africa is based on the UK model.) I completed was a research degree, with the outcome based solely on the quality of the dissertation/thesis (which was 2 1/2 times longer than the dissertation written for the professional doctorate).

 

The DSocSci at Leicester isn't a fully 'professional doctorate,' despite the alternative (non-PhD) title. In a professional doctorate, the student may take a non-scholarly (meaning, non-theoretical) tack to the research, basing it in practice instead. (Thesis research is normally theory testing or theory generation.) In fact, there is no real difference in design or philosophy between the DSocSci thesis and the PhD, except size. You have fewer words to work with, which means (typically) the scope of your study is a bit smaller. I've encouraged the school to transform it into a truly professional doctorate--most of the literature about professional doctorates seems to come from the UK--but I think they're faced with institutional biases towards scholarship, even in a DSocSci.

NB: The word requirements for the thesis (50K for the DSocSci and 80K for the PhD) are upper limits. We read in these threads all the time about students worried about doing 'enough' in their dissertations. Well, I found the word limit incredibly troublesome. Not trying to meet it, but trying to stay within it. It forced me to do a lot of editing and to remove entire sections of my literature review. Arguably, this was for the best, but ouch.

 

That is lot of writing and researching. Here is what I have...

 

Rich,

You could post the larger image to Imagebin - Somewhere to Store Random Things (an anonymous image site like Pastebin for text) and then share the URL or a bit.ly of it back here to the thread.

Even when opened in a new window it's teeny-tiny.

I had to break out my super-specs to read it.

 

I have 3 of them. (DD Forms 214, that is.)

 

Okay. Here it is: http://ibin.co/28lKjsJMtL6g

 

Much better. Gracias.

 

Exactly. Well put.

Reminds me of this:

A member of the Cabinet once congratulated the president on introducing the vogue of short speeches and asked him about the time it took him to prepare. He answered:

“It depends. If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week; if fifteen, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.”

- Attributed to Woodrow Wilson