Doctor of Education

The Doctor of Education degree (Ed.D.) is an undifferentiated terminal doctoral degree that prepares the student for advanced professional proficiency in education, and for scholarly study of professional problems. Like other doctorates, the Ed.D. is an academic degree of the highest level. It differs from a Ph.D. in Education in that it allows the study of a greater variety of education-related subjects in the first few years, focusing on a single topic only at the end. A typical four-year Ph.D. in the United Kingdom might require the submission of a 100,000-word thesis; the entire study period would be spent researching the topic and writing the thesis. For a four-year Ed.D., a student might be required to research various topics in the first two years, preparing a 6,000-word report for each. The last two years would be spent on the thesis, which might only be 50,000 words.

Related Topics:
Academic degree - Ph.D. - United Kingdom

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Since the Ph.D. is the most popular and common of the research doctorates among university professors in the United States, there is often a perceived bias in favor of the Ph.D. over other doctoral degrees, though the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) recognize numerous other doctoral degrees as equivalent and do not discriminate between them. A list can be found at: doctorate.

Related Topics:
United States - Bias - U.S. Department of Education - U.S. National Science Foundation - Doctorate

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