....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!

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

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?

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.

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...

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.

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

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

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.

limit as in that's the MINIMUM allowed time?

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.

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

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