Quick Question, is D.Phil the same as a PhD?

[Egwene]

A quick question for you all, is D.Phil the same qualification as a PhD?

I found the abbreviation on the Oxford University web site.

DrPhil is great. I love his tash. Abbreviation is Phil.

It's a Doctor of Philosophy
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Philosophy

so it's a type of a PhD but not exactly the same thing

No, it's exactly the same thing. Oxford (and Sussex, I think) refer to a doctorate as a D.Phil (they abbreviate the English: 'Doctor of Philosophy'). Everyone else uses the Latin, which abbreviates to PhD.

But they are exactly the same level of degree and are awarded in the same way. For both, you do roughly three years' work which must make an independent, original contribution to your subject, and you write a thesis. Standard length for essay subjects is about 90,000 words.

Its is the same. Oxford couldn't have the same qualification as Cambridge, so they choose to do DPhil instead. I think Scandinavian Universities also do DPhils.

In Swedish you are a Fil. Dr. Exactly the same as having a PhD: it's just that we spell philosophy with an 'f'. SO if a Scandinavian university refers to their academics as DPhils that just means they've copied it off a website where that was the abbreviation used.

Aha, thank you all for your quick replies, and thank you so much for not linking to the 'let me google that for you' site! Sometimes you just need a real person to explain.

Are you thinking of doing one, Egwene? [nosy emoticon]. I live in Oxford, it's a really pretty town to be in.

Surely the only thing that matters with a PhD is the quality of the thesis? And that is going to depend on the quality of the brains of the person who writes it.

True, my mum has a DPhil and freely admits it's pretty crap.

I have a Fil. Dr. and having just re-read my thesis I can confirm that it is not crap .

Actually in universities which award both a PhD and a DPhil they are different. The PhD by thesis of course but the DPhil by submitting a sufficient volume of published work.

I have been toying with the idea, just looking around at web sites and whatnot. Its been a few years since my MA and I am not sure my brain still works!

Well, good luck with it - hope you don't keep having to explain what the qualification means!

nlondondad - that's just a convenient way of explaining why you offer two roughly equal degrees though, isn't it? Like the way Oxford offers MPhil and M.St degrees, both of which are Masters. I know people who got their PhDs by submitting pre-published work, it's not uncommon.