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For those who've graduated....

K

....what does it say on your degree certificate?
Sounds daft, but I never paid too much attention to mine when I received it at the grad ceremony, it got put away in it's envelope.

However, recently I had to supply a copy of it to someone ... I looked closely and am surpised that it just says "This is to certifiy that on {date), Kronk o'Dile was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy."

There's no indication of what subject it was in, what department I was in, etc, nothing. That's it. Are they all like this? I could say I've got a doctorate in anything if the certificate is taken at face value!

C

My undergrad certificate is like that, could have a degree in anything!!

J

that's odd. mine (bachelors and masters) state my course and the grade i achieved. perhaps you could contact your uni for clarification or a more detailed certificate?

J

My Bachelors gave all the details (including that annoying 2:2 in big type). And the PhD ones I've seem give the area of research (e.g. Natural Products Research), though not the actual thesis title.

U

My PhD certificate says the same as yours.

ie name, date, some words about having satisfied examiners for a phd.

it is however printed on nice paper with a gold stripe.

i take your point, it could have been in philately...

S

my "masters" says i am a lizenziata philosophiae. quaint, in latin-ish, isn't it? (for real latin, i would have expected c's instead of z's, but i might be wrong)
but it has a second page which lists the subjects studied (major, 1st minor, 2nd minor) and the dissertation title with overall grades per subject/dissertation.

T

I was told that a PhD was a passport to research, a bit like a driving licence. Once you have it you can go on to reserach anywhere, perhaps this is to ensure that you have that freedom.

Tiggs

S

kronkodile and UFO - since you're PhD graduates I thought I would ask...how long was it between submission of your thesis and the viva? Any idea what's typical - what's a reasonable amount of time to allow the examiners to read the thesis? (Anyone else feel free to comment too.) Brian May's examiners only took a few weeks

C

There's a 10 week limit between submitting and viva in my department (Molecular Biology), or at least it is usually this timeframe if not an official limit.

S

limit as in that's the MINIMUM allowed time?

K

Hi Sue

At my place there was a 3 month guideline limit - as in the MAXIMUM that a student should have to wait between submission and viva. This was not set in stone, it was just a guideline amount really to discourage supervisors from pinning their hopes on one person for the position of external, than finding that they're ill/indisposed and cannot come to conduct the viva for ages. My first choice was someone who wouldn't have been able to do it for 9 months, so the 3 month limit made my supervisors look for someone else suitable who could do it sooner. Mine was just over by a couple of weeks there was Xmas in between and the examiner was on hols, but most of my friends have been examined within 3 months.

C

limit as in max time. It depends on how busy the chosen examiners are.

U

helllo sue, mine took 10 weeks, as getting 4 professors diaries simultaneously booked is impossible. Minimum is around 3 weeks. Maximum can be 12 months. Typically 6-8 weeks I would say.

it's important to fill in all the forms saying you're about to submit well in advance as universities take their time getting everything sorted.

HTH

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