I've noticed that people with international doctoral qualifications from France, Italy, Germany, etc., use the title of Ph.D. even when their doctorate is called "Doctorat", "Dottore" and "Doktor", respectively on their diplomas. They seem to use "Ph.D." after their names which we all know means "Doctor of Philosophy". Is this appropriate?
Good point. The same issue is for foreign doctorates that are not standard in Canada. For example, the DBA is not very known in Canada so very few would use the title DBA and use PhD instead. The general rule in Canada is that you are allowed to use the title that is equivalent in the Canadian education system. If you get your degree evaluated by a government agency as a PhD, you can use the title even if your degree was originally granted as DBA or something else.
Take a look at a few foreign university websites. Irrespective of the local name of their doctorates, which in some countries may include dozens of subject-specific titles, in English they quite often refer to their degrees as "PhD". I would say that it's appropriate usage if the degree in question is a dissertation-based research doctorate. And in this day and age, if I were working in America and I had the German degree of "Dr. phil." I'd probably call it a PhD just to avoid giggling.
I'm from Canada too and as far as I know we don't have DBA's in our educational system aside from the University of Sherbrooke, but that might be a "Doctorat" and not a DBA. Royal Roads University attempted to start one, but it fell through. It just seems that all foreign professors hold the Ph.D. title when I know the "Doctor of Philosophy" or "Philosophiæ Doctor" is not used in their country of origin. I just wonder if there any official rules within academia governing the use of titles? Apparently Ph.D. seems to be open to anyone with a doctorate in any discipline.
Weighing in I don't really have a problem with someone with a non-English language degree referring to it as a "PhD" so long as it's a research-based doctoral-level degree. For example, if someone who had a doctoral degree from the external program at Far East National University referred to themselves as PhD, that would seem reasonable. I think the Russians refer to it as a "Candidate degree" or something like that. -=Steve=-
Yes. Candidate ("Kandidat") of "your_general_area" Sciences. E. g. "Candidate of Technical Sciences" for all kinds of engineering and technology, abbreviated as "k. t. n" postnominal, lower case. "Doctor of ___ Sciences" is a higher degree requiring a second (much bigger) thesis, publications and, generally, experience supervising Candidate theses.
I've noticed that the Far East National University refers to their doctoral programs as follows: "Graduates willing to continue their university study enroll to postgraduate programs (regular 3 years of research resulting in Ph.D. degree, Russian “Candidate Degree”)." It seems that Ph.D. has become a "catch all" designation for international doctoral programs and it would be appropriate to use as such on a CV. I was thinking that it might not be appropriate to use Ph.D. is someone graduated from a British DBA or Ed.D., since there is no translation required in this case. Opinions?
It depends, if you are in the US where the DBA exists, then I would think that it is not appropriate to use the PhD. If you live in Canada, you might need to use the PhD in order to let people know your level of degree provided that you have an equivalent given to you by a government authority to back it up. The stands for engineering degrees from some European countries,some people refer to them an M.Sc since they are higher than bachelor's than could be used for entry into a doctorate program. In the UK you have M.Eng degrees that are given as a first degree. How do you translate this?
This is an interesting situation. I have a Canadian M.Eng. which is a postgraduate degree. I don't imagine that the Briton would want to come to Canada and use the B.Eng. designation! I have known some people from Europe that graduated from a five-year engineering degrees and matter-of-factly use the M.Sc. designation. I guess as long as the use is appropriate and not misleading, it's OK.
In a way, it is misleading as a Canadian M.Sc is 6 or 5.5 years of education and not 5. In addition, an M.Sc requires a thesis while some European engineering degrees don't. In addition, they cannot be used for admission to a PhD degree so they are not at the same level. The minister of education don't consider them as equivalent and you will see that they don't get the official M.Sc equivalent. However, they keep using it as they don't like to be called "B.Sc" but this is not appropriate if you ask me.
However, it would be unfair for them to be considered a B.Sc. MEng was really awarded from their local institution and they've paid additional effort than that with a BEng counterparts. I believe MEng have course exemption in the MPhil programme, even if they can't directly admited to PhD programme. I don't think it is not simple to translate every degree title from various educational systems, without understanding the educational system behind. The simple way would be just use what's awarded, and better mention which school awarded the degree.
What about an accredited American MS in engineering (or any other field) degree? (with thesis or with comprehensive examination) Would it be considered equivalent to a Canadian MSc?
