What is a Ph.D. Degree?

From time-to-time students are curious to know why a Doctor of Philosopy (Ph.D.) degree is awarded to people who major in MIS, Psychology, Physics, Economics, Business Administration, and other disciplines at the doctoral level that do not appear to have much to do with the field of philosophy.

Interestingly, the Ph.D. degree has little to do with what most people perceive when they think of the word "philosophy". The following is an attempt to explain this further and, hopefully, to the satisfaction of the reader.

Traditionally, graduate education has involved acquiring and communicating knowledge gained through original research in a particular academic field. This is most often accomplished through the preparation and publication of scholarly books and articles. The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree is the highest earned degree awarded by a graduate school. People who earn this degree are required to pursue original research in a particular area.

In contrast, professional training stresses the practical application of knowledge and skills; this is true, for example, in the fields of business, law, and medicine. At the doctoral level, degrees in these areas include the Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.), the Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.), and the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.).

It is interesting that some Business Schools award the D.B.A., while others award Ph.D. degrees. Traditionally, schools that have offered the Ph.D. have had a focus on research, while schools offering with D.B.A. programs were more focused on the application of research others had done. Today, though, even this distinction has its exceptions.

Because the title of the degree includes the word "Philosophy", there is a common misconception that the degree is awarded to people who major in Philosophy. This, of course, is not true. The reference is to the Philosophy of Science and the development of scientific methods.

In the field of MIS, the reference to "Philosophy" is made to imply that the Philosophy of Science is used to study problems associated with the application of information technology to business problems and opportunities. MIS research is concerned with the use of the scientific method to evaluate new and existing concepts, techniques, and processes related to the successful application of information technology to business problems.

Students who aspire to earn a Ph.D. degree must be dedicated enough to their particular fields of study to spend three years taking graduate-level courses and earning mostly A's in those courses. While pursuing this course work, the student usually "apprentices" a Ph.D. Professor as a research assistant. The Professor, referred to as one's Ph.D. Advisor, directs the student in the performance of research in support of the Professor's own projects.

When a Ph.D. student completes all of the course work required for the degree, he or she must complete a "Comprehensive Examination", or "comp" for short. Comps pose research-oriented questions that require students to use material from their course work as well as material that was not covered in the courses taken. The objective of the examination is to evaluate whether a student has a working knowledge of the research literature in the field and whether he or she is able to apply it in new ways in their responses to the questions on the comp exams. Comps usually involve between three and five full days of testing.

Once a student has successfully completed and passed the Comprehensive Exams, he or she must propose a Dissertation topic and, during a meeting of all the professors in their major department, convince them that there will indeed be original findings forthcoming from the project. Approval can never be assumed during this meeting: in fact, it is not unusual for the Faculty of a Department to send the student back "to the drawing board" for either a modified proposal or a completely new one. Some students never make it beyond this point.

After formal approval has been given for the dissertation topic, the student is referred to as a "Ph.D. Candidate" or an "ABD", which is an acronym representing the words "All-But-[the]-Dissertation". The student must work in pursuit of the proposed research under the supervision of the advisor and a dissertation committee. The committee usually consists of about 3 members. Data are often collected at this stage and statistical analyses are run to "test" the hypotheses postulated in the proposal. This process can often take a year or more of dedicated work to complete.

When the committee is satisfied that the student has done his or her best work and that the findings really do represent an "original contribution" to the body of knowledge in the field, the Candidate must defend the findings of the dissertation in front of the Faculty of the College. The Faculty may vote to accept the dissertation, accept it with assurances that certain revisions will be made, or deny approval of the dissertation. If approval is denied, the Candidate does not get the degree. This sometimes happens and when it does, it is almost never a surprise to most of the people involved in the process, including the Candidate. Enough feedback is provided during the process to let a student know what the likelihood of success will be at the Dissertation Defense.