Hi,
I'm currently a master's student and hoping to carry on with education after I finish this year. But I've seen some options that are available to me; either do a PhD or a Professional Doctorate. From what I've gathered a PhD is the highest level of qualification and ideal for jobs in academia, whereas a Professional Doctorate is more industry based. In this moment in time I'm not fussed whether I go into academia or a professional job, but what would be best for me if I wanted to carry on studying? Or another thing is if I was to do PhD and few years down the line in a job I was to undertake a Professional Doctorate, would it be necessary even though if I was to hold a PhD?

Thanks
Soyful

Depends on your career intentions. Some careers/jobs require applicants with professional doctorates, other positions require completed PhDs.

I'm in the very final stages of a PhD in a psychology related field , but last year I started a professional doctorate in health psychology. I'm retraining to become a chartered health psychologist for various reasons, but mostly to broaden my career options.

Completing my professional doctorate in psychology, will enable me to register as a Chartered Psychologist with various organizations and allow me to apply for various jobs advertising for qualified health psychologists. My professional doctorate is very different from my PhD and generally involves writing various case studies and reports from relevant work experience placements to illuminate independent competency in certain areas outlined by the British Psychological Society (BPS). My professional doctorate also includes completion of a doctoral research thesis, but the research thesis is considerably smaller in word count and scope in comparison with my PhD thesis.

Applicants with completed PhDs are eligible to apply for some positions- ie Postdoctoral research workers, senior research assistant, research associates, lecturers etc etc.

However, applicants with PhDs in Psychology will not be eligible to apply for qualified psychologist positions.

Both courses (PhD, Professional Doctorate) are doctoral level courses and involve similar assessments (ie research thesis, viva, etc), but both courses are also very different and tap into different skill sets.

Hope this helps and makes sense!

The short answer is if you want to remain within the Academia, go for a PhD, if you are looking for an experience in the industry/practice go for a DProf , mind you that the latter should be underpinned by some working experience.

yeah, vadro is quite right. im using the opportunity offered by the professional doctorate to be involved in a promising technological project between the university and the industry. if everything turns out well, im hoping to be invited as one of the consultants to the booming industry.