AIBU - use of ‘Dr’ title - is this normal?!

[Cheesecake45]

Just not sure if I need to get with the times or not - is it normal to go by the title ‘Dr’ simply for having a PhD, if you aren’t in the medical profession? I’m talking one of the easiest PhDs to get (comparatively speaking), nothing vaguely linked to medicine.

AIBU??
YES = this is totally normal get over yourself
NO = wouldn’t be caught dead calling myself a doctor unless I could be assistance in a medical emergency!

@Peppermintytea
Can you back that up with evidence please?

Doesn't matter. Most professions don't really make a difference to the world. Does not mean they are not contributing in their field in some meaningful way.

This is silly. Their PhD might not, but it's an important first project that teaches them how to go on to do the research that does make a difference.

“Yet it can often feel like contemporary academia is more about chasing citations. Most academic work is shared only with a particular scientific community, rather than policymakers or businesses, which makes it entirely disconnected from practice.”

https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2018/aug/09/a-phd-should-be-about-improving-society-not-chasing-academic-kudos

I wouldn’t, but I also wouldn’t bitch on the internet about someone who did.
You jealous OP? Or did you mistakenly ask them to look at a boil on your arse or something??

The subject would be Gender Studies or anything non-scientific with the word "Critical" in it.

(Apologies if I'm not the first to say so...)

People can actually do or think whatever they like, so not sure why anyone is trying to furiously convince anyone else.

If you want to call yourself doctor you can. (Actually, you can whether you earned it or not - there aren't police for that.)

And if you want to think someone who calls themselves 'Dr' it is a bit of a knob, you can do that too.

What's your qualification? Just curious

So you can’t even say. Same tired old insults but zero explanations.

Some achievements come with a change of title; others don’t. If you want a change of title, just become a judge, or a life peer, or a knight of the garter, or a member of the clergy. Or do a PhD. Or any of the other things that confer a change of title.

FFS that’s what Dr means. I’m part way through mine and I’ll bloody well be using the title if I finish it!

I said comparatively easy, no PhD is easy and I didn’t mean to offend, but obviously there’s a difference between a PhD from Cambridge in astrophysics and an online PhD in another subject.I said comparatively easy, no PhD is easy and I didn’t mean to offend, but obviously there’s a difference between a PhD from Cambridge in astrophysics and an online PhD in another subject

I'm still confused if you personally have a doctorate. What is an 'online PhD'? PhDs take three-four years, involve novel or innovative study, require you to write a small book (80-100, 000) words, and have high standards of examination in any discipline with external examiners who all have at least PhDs and usually at the more senior academic levels. There isn't an 'online' PhD as such.

All proper research is good. The day all research has to be just how Institutions and Governments want it will not be a good day.
Let researchers go for it. If someone wants to spend 5 years researching something that adds to our knowledge then that has to be good thing.

Well done, Dr Copperas. Yes, PHD is a doctoral degree and it's not easy.

I wonder if your mindset would alter re the USI age if it was your kid who had earned a Doctorate (those who think it’s wanker-ry and so on)?

And too right I use mine - though I don’t shout it from the rooftops but it’s on my drivers license etc.

Actually the examination criteria are that a doctorate makes a significant contribution to the field of study. It also demands that that contribution he original . Furthermore it is the only academic qualification that must be assessed by an external examiner who is an expert in the field, as well as one from the university awarding the degree - which is a belt and braces safeguard to ensure these standards are met.

I think it’s being a bit churlish to say that isn’t a valuable contribution.

Stop troll hunting just because people don’t agree with you.

I’ve not insulted anyone. Did you object to the PHD holder upthread who called a receptionist a ‘numbskull’ just because she dared to ask her if she was a Miss or Mrs? Thought not.

I was thinking about the Rev title. Is that official in a secular society. And do Judges use it on letters etc. I don't know a judge. Does the bank send letters addressed as judge Blue...

We do, we are just well aware there are different types of doctors and they aren’t a medical doctor. It’s not that complicated.

Actually there is no difference in a PhD from Cambridge and an ‘on line’ PhD awarded in the UK. Your perception that ‘astrophysics’ is harder than another unspecified subject is somewhat ignorant. Each PhD requires a clear research question, must set out the aims and defend the methodology chosen to investigate that question. These must be robust enough to withstand scrutiny of peers and assessors, regardless of whether it is a science/humanities/arts based project. There are also ethical considerations so every project has to be approved by the Ethics committee and monitored to ensure it operates within the parameters agreed by them.

All PhD’s have to be externally assessed for quality and robustness, both during the research and upon completion, and are reviewed and monitored by the QAA in the UK. The panel who reads the thesis and the one that carries out the Viva examination is comprised of academics from other institutions who are experts in the field.

Which university a person choses for their PhD is dependent upon whether there is an expert in the field who can supervise and/or direct the students studies - so, if Cambridge doesn’t have a specialist in ‘the heat deflecting properties of ceramics’, for a PhD being done with a NASA bursary - to ensure it’s launchpads can withstand the heat of a rocket launch - the the student will have to go elsewhere. My aunt, who did this particular piece of research in the 1990s, went to Leeds. Her PhD is no less valuable than one in ‘the depiction of women in Chaucerian poetry’ which one might get from Cambridge’s rather fusty Medieval Literature department.

And see my post above on the requisite standards for being awarded the doctorate. It’s more than just good because it is research . It has to be original and make a “ significant contribution” to the field. Given it is experts deciding whether it has met these standards, I think it’s only fair for those of us outside that field to accept it does.

My husband has a PhD, he goes by Dr at work, he works at a Uni where it's quite normal to do that. It's on his bank cards etc but doesn't use it day to day eg if we book a table or whatever it's Mr. He worked bloody hard for the title though so if he wants to use it it's fine by me.