Post Doctoral Degree

The word Doctorate originates from the Latin word doctor which means teacher and it was prevalent in Medieval Europe where it gave the person the right to teach at a university. It took seven long years to train before the person became a Master of Arts.

To qualify for a post doctoral degree the student has to do a lot of research on the subject that he or she wishes to specialize in. In this case it is an academic qualification while there are also honorary doctoral degrees which are awarded to people who are recognized for their exceptional work which could either be scholarly or their contributions to society or university.

There are different types of doctorates like research doctorates, honorary doctorates, higher doctorates, and professional doctorates.

In the case of research doctorates the research student has to complete a thesis on a subject and make a submission. The work is then assessed by a senior person who may have several doctorates to his or her credit. Once the research paper is found acceptable and credit worthy then the research student is awarded a doctorate degree.

The research student has to spend lots of his or her time pouring over plenty of already published research papers before he or she can write the research paper. The Doctor of Philosophy is the most common doctorate degree awarded.

There is also the Doctor of Engineering and the Doctor of Science degrees. The number of years before a student gets his or her doctorate degree on their research paper can vary anywhere between 5 to 10 years depending on the subject taken up for research.

Higher doctorates are awarded to people in recognition of their contributions to a particular field in which they are in.

Those people who are already graduates and hold a degree in specialized fields like medicine, law, music etc are also awarded doctorate degrees like Doctor of Medicine.

An Honorary Doctorate degree is awarded by a university in recognition of a person's achievement in his field. The person is permitted to affix the letters Dr. before his or her name but it does not mean that they have done years of research on a particular subject. .

Most people who pursue a post doctoral degree would have already completed their study or Master's graduation in a particular subject. Most of the subjects taken for post doctoral research relate to science and medicine and many of its related subjects. The research students take up a particular field or subject they want to specialize in after their masters in the same subject and begin in conducting research in that field. They make their observations and prepare a thesis for submission.

The detailed study is keenly reviewed by a panel of members who then accept the paper presented and once it is found to be authentic then the research scholar is awarded a doctoral degree.

In the internet there are many reputed universities which are providing scholars the opportunity to obtain a post doctoral degree.