4 ms·

The reason the US PhD takes five to seven years is because most students enter it without a Master's degree. In the UK it only takes two or three years because

The reason the US PhD takes five to seven years is because most students enter it without a Master's degree. In the UK it only takes two or three years because they generally need to complete a relevant Master's degree first.

chrisseaton 8y ago
> they generally need to complete a relevant Master's degree first No that's not the case at all - most people do a three-years bachelors and then a three-year PhD. That's the expected route for a PhD in the UK. Doing a masters in between would look like you were starting to drag it out a bit. And the first year of your PhD is worth a masters if you chose to drop out at that point.
- soVeryTired 8y ago
  Not many candidates finish a CS PhD in three years. Four is probably the mean, with three and five being the typical upper and lower ranges. Often the funding dries up after three years, but the student soldiers on anyway because they're well past the point of no return, or because their advisor can employ them in some other capacity like a teaching or research assistant.
- deleted 8y ago
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- throwawaymath 8y ago
  Really? Is this a relatively recent change? I have a degree from the UK and what you're saying runs counter to my experience... Does this depend on the field? In my experience most students do a three year bachelors, a one or two year Master's, and then a three year PhD.
- quietbritishjim 8y ago
  For mathematics, all the top-tier UK universities expect you to do a one-year taught masters (i.e. not a research masters) before starting a PhD. This certainly includes Cambridge, Oxford, Warwick, Imperial, UCL and KCL. Cambridge calls its masters a "Part III" or "Certificate of Advance Studies" but it's definitely just a regular masters, albeit a really hard one. Mathematics PhDs in most of these institutions have a sort of informal target length of three years but usually take four years in practice. Funding is usually three years but often four, and the fees are often a tiny fraction of the usual amount in the final year to reflect that there is often a difference. I have much less knowledge of other subjects, but from the little I've heard the same seems to be true of chemistry and computer science. In short: I agree with the parent comment, at least for mathematics (and probably for all STEM subjects).
  - deleted 8y ago
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  - chrisseaton 8y ago
    Cambridge for example does not require a masters to begin a CS PhD (it doesn't even require your undergraduate degree to be in CS.) I don't know about other fields, but applications to do a CS PhD in the UK are usually pretty informal. It's a case of finding an advisor and if they want to take you on that's usually basically the only requirement. How they judge that is up to them.
BeetleB 8y ago
>The reason the US PhD takes five to seven years is because most students enter it without a Master's degree. In the UK it only takes two or three years because they generally need to complete a relevant Master's degree first. In a number of countries, the MS is 2 years, and the PhD is capped at 3 years. That's still a total of 5 years. If you don't get the PhD done in 3 years, that's fine, but the funding is capped at 3 years, so pretty much everyone gets it done in that time frame. The reason it takes 5-7 in the US is because the advisors want it to be that way, and because of the glut in funding in some programs.

chrisseaton 8y ago

> they generally need to complete a relevant Master's degree first No that's not the case at all - most people do a three-years bachelors and then a three-year PhD. That's the expected route for a PhD in the UK. Doing a masters in between would look like you were starting to drag it out a bit. And the first year of your PhD is worth a masters if you chose to drop out at that point.

soVeryTired 8y ago
Not many candidates finish a CS PhD in three years. Four is probably the mean, with three and five being the typical upper and lower ranges. Often the funding dries up after three years, but the student soldiers on anyway because they're well past the point of no return, or because their advisor can employ them in some other capacity like a teaching or research assistant.
deleted 8y ago
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throwawaymath 8y ago
Really? Is this a relatively recent change? I have a degree from the UK and what you're saying runs counter to my experience... Does this depend on the field? In my experience most students do a three year bachelors, a one or two year Master's, and then a three year PhD.
quietbritishjim 8y ago
For mathematics, all the top-tier UK universities expect you to do a one-year taught masters (i.e. not a research masters) before starting a PhD. This certainly includes Cambridge, Oxford, Warwick, Imperial, UCL and KCL. Cambridge calls its masters a "Part III" or "Certificate of Advance Studies" but it's definitely just a regular masters, albeit a really hard one. Mathematics PhDs in most of these institutions have a sort of informal target length of three years but usually take four years in practice. Funding is usually three years but often four, and the fees are often a tiny fraction of the usual amount in the final year to reflect that there is often a difference. I have much less knowledge of other subjects, but from the little I've heard the same seems to be true of chemistry and computer science. In short: I agree with the parent comment, at least for mathematics (and probably for all STEM subjects).
- deleted 8y ago
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- chrisseaton 8y ago
  Cambridge for example does not require a masters to begin a CS PhD (it doesn't even require your undergraduate degree to be in CS.) I don't know about other fields, but applications to do a CS PhD in the UK are usually pretty informal. It's a case of finding an advisor and if they want to take you on that's usually basically the only requirement. How they judge that is up to them.

BeetleB 8y ago

>The reason the US PhD takes five to seven years is because most students enter it without a Master's degree. In the UK it only takes two or three years because they generally need to complete a relevant Master's degree first. In a number of countries, the MS is 2 years, and the PhD is capped at 3 years. That's still a total of 5 years. If you don't get the PhD done in 3 years, that's fine, but the funding is capped at 3 years, so pretty much everyone gets it done in that time frame. The reason it takes 5-7 in the US is because the advisors want it to be that way, and because of the glut in funding in some programs.