PhD without a master in Europe

S

Hi, I'm doing my master in Computer Science in Italy.
After a period of Eramsus in UK the professor asked me to do a funded PhD with him without finish the master.
Is it good to start a PhD without the master?
Will be my PhD acknowledged in other countries without the master for a post-doc position or for continue with the academic carrer?

T

Do you mean you haven't finished your masters yet, or he is asking you to not to finish it ever?

Quite a few students start their PhD without quite finishing their master thesis, but they will go on to finish after about 6 months of starting their PhD.

It won't really make any difference to your future career whether you have a masters or not once you have your PhD.

Many students in the UK have a PhD without a masters.

S

For the Italian law is not possible to have in the same time the status of "Master student" and "PhD Student". I should finish the master in July 2016 (the MS is 2 years in Italy) but the professor asked me to start the PhD in October 2015.

So If I start the PhD I might continue the MS after that I complete the PhD. But I don't know if at that point, having a PhD, is worth it waste time to complete the MS in the same field!

I know that for the UK law is not important to have the MS for continue the career, I just want to know if in other European countries I could have bureaucratic problem if I don't have the MS.

Thank you very much!

D

I don't think that it will be a disadvantage. The PhD is valued higher as the Master. If you got your PhD, people will know that you would have easily finished the masters as well.

You should however consider that you could fail the PhD and then fall back to the bachelor level. The question is how hard it is to find a funded PhD in computer science. If it is easy, I would suggest to finish the master. You are half way through and it would be a pity if that was "all for nothing". No need to rush into a PhD if you won't have problems to find another nice position after your master. If it is hard to find something, you should maybe consider the offer.

I don't know if you can finish the master after a PhD. There might be a rule that it has to be completed in a certain time span.

39841