Higher
In some countries, especially the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and some Scandinavian nations, or former USSR and other Eastern Bloc countries, there is a higher tier of research doctorates, awarded on the basis of a formally submitted portfolio of published research of a very high standard. Examples include the Doctor of Sciences (DSc/ScD) and Doctor of Letters (DLitt/LittD) degrees found in the UK, Ireland and some Commonwealth countries, and the traditional doctorates in Denmark and Norway, including Dr. Theol. (Theology), Dr. Jur. (Law), Dr. Med. (Medicine) and, after Denmark and Norway introduced the Ph.D. at a lower level, Dr. Phil(os).. The Danish and Norwegian titles should not be confused with German doctorates.
The French, German and Polish habilitation (a formal professorial qualification with thesis and exam) is commonly regarded as belonging to this category. However, in some German states, the Habilitation is not an academic degree, but rather a professorial certification ("facultas docendi") that the person concerned holds all the qualifications needed to teach independently at a German university. In other German states, the "Habilitand" is awarded a formal "Dr. habil." degree. In some cases where such degrees are awarded, the holder of the degree may add "habil." to his or her research doctorate such as "Dr. phil. habil." or "Dr. rer. nat. habil." The French academic system used to have a higher doctorate, called "State doctorate" (doctorat d'État), but it was superseded by the habilitation in 1984.
In Sweden, a title roughly corresponding to the Habilitation is Docent. This was also commonly used in Poland but as of 2005 was changed to a formal "Dr hab." (doktor habilitowany) degree. See below (Poland section) for more details.
Higher doctorates are often also awarded honoris causa when a university wishes to formally recognize an individual's achievements and contributions to a particular field.
Read more about this topic: Doctoral Degrees, Types
Famous quotes containing the word higher:
“By going one step further back in thought, discordant opinions are reconciled by being seen to be two extremes of one principle, and we can never go so far back as to preclude a still higher vision.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Wherever a man separates from the multitude, and goes his own way in this mood, there indeed is a fork in the road, though ordinary travelers may see only a gap in the paling. His solitary path across lots will turn out the higher way of the two.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I have just come down from my father.
Higher and higher he lies
Above me in a blue light
Shed by a tinted window.”
—James Dickey (b. 1923)