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There is legislative proposal in our small country (Republic of Latvia, Baltic Country, European Union) that proposes to allow elected associate professors, full professors and provosts of the research universities to be without doctorate (e.g. PhD or MD or other doctorate). The authors of proposal are saying that anglo-saxon and Western European countries have tradition (even Stanford University) to have such positions filled with persons not having doctorate.

I can not believe this. Doctorate degree is so common in academia, I can understand that only junior lecturers and assistant professors can be without doctorate (with mandatory master degree). But starting from associate professors - degree should be a must in science and medical studies.

Is there clarification available under which circumstances the Continental Western European research universities allow associate, full professors and provosts to be without doctorate (e.g. PhD or MD) (I mean specifically doctorate in medicine, and no just the professional qualification).

My question applies specifically to the Continental Western Europe starting from Germany and Austria and going to the West. My question applies to the research and technical universities, not the Tertiary Art education (in which it is fair to have professional degrees). The previous version of this question applied to Anglo-Saxon countries as well but I was reminded about similar US specific question, as well as there were comments about distinct UK traditions. So - there are a lot of information on Academia site about US and UK, so, I narrowed this question to the laws and practices of Continental Western Europe. I edited question once more - I replaced wording "PhD/MD" with "doctorate". Of course, my question is about doctorate generally, not about particular type of doctorate as PhD or MD.

If this question gathers enough proof that such legislative proposal is contrary to the traditions of the Western Universities, then I can bring this proof to the authors of the proposed legislation to question their true intentions.

Buffy
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TomR
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  • Does this answer your question? Professorship without PhD in the United States – Anonymous Physicist Mar 29 '21 at 08:37
  • I modified my question - the cited question is good enough for me regarding US, but I would like more information about EU and UK. So - I modified my question. – TomR Mar 29 '21 at 08:43
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    I think a lot of countries have exceptions for art schools and musical conservatories, which in many systems are grouped with universities. But I don't think that is what you had in mind. And in a research university you would never hire anyone without a sufficiently strong research background, which then could be used to grant them a PhD anyway, if you want them desperately enough. Karl Weierstrass would be a good historical example for this. – mlk Mar 29 '21 at 10:26
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    Note that in the UK, the terms associate and assistant professor are not commonly used. The "ranks" of permanent academic staff are lecturer, senior lecturer, reader and professor, and the conversion from one naming convention to the other may not be well-defined. – astronat supports the strike Mar 29 '21 at 10:40
  • For me, it is more surprising that you find it acceptable that "readers and assistant profs" can be without a doctorate, but not entry-level positions. I have indeed seen a couple of examples (in the UK) of Lecturers (entry-level academic positions here), often industry hires, not holding a PhD, however these were mostly hired at teaching-only positions without the expectation to do (or supervise) research. I have heard, second-hand, of somebody holding a "higher ranked" UK academic position without completing a PhD degree, but apparently "they had a research profile any prof would envy" – penelope Mar 29 '21 at 11:44
  • Sorry for terminology. I thought that read is entry-evel position - just lecturer for basic courses. I don't know much about the UK hierarchy. – TomR Mar 29 '21 at 12:09
  • I think that you need to realise that in the UK there are no legal requirements that academic postholders in universities should be qualified in any particular way at all. In practice nowadays the adverts seem to all ask for a PhD for lecturer/associate professor posts, but adverts for Chairs [top of the hierarchy Professors to simplify] don't bother and don't care - track record is all by that stage. I think what the proposers are saying about the Anglo-saxons may have been true 50 years ago especially in non-science subjects but not nowadays . – erstwhile editor Mar 29 '21 at 14:45
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    Maybe we should set up a reference question about the mapping(s) between lecturer-senior lecturer-reader-professor and assistant professor-associate professor-professor? – Daniel Hatton Mar 29 '21 at 15:47
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    @DanielHatton There is at least a UK US comparison here: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48977/academic-rank-equivalence-between-the-uk-and-the-us-systems and a bit of an attempt at a broader take here: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/428/is-there-an-international-taxonomy-of-academic-titles-ranks Probably others too, these were just my first finds. Of course it's a bit complicated because the mappings will never be 1:1. – Bryan Krause Mar 29 '21 at 17:53
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    Thanks, @BryanKrause. I've added an extra answer with some new data to the first of those two questions. – Daniel Hatton Mar 29 '21 at 21:05
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    The University of Sydney just appointed a Vice Chancellor without a PhD. – Prof. Santa Claus Mar 31 '21 at 21:12
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    I can imagine many fields where one want recruit someone from outside of academia because have significant other experience than just writing papers: all kind of arts, literature, design, architecture, business related, even in engineering. In that sense an MDs and JDs (which is undergrad degree in many countries) is a similar situation. Note that academic culture is very diverse even in “Western Europe” so examples in one country are not really arguments for or against of any kind of new legislation in another country. – Greg Apr 01 '21 at 01:07

4 Answers4

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It's pretty rare, but it looks like the University of Cambridge recently appointed someone without a doctorate to the Rouse Ball Professorship of English Law, and I've seen advertisements for associate-professor level vacancies in Engineering (in the UK) that call for either a Ph.D. or Chartered Engineer status, but not necessarily both.

The "Order of seniority of graduates" of the University of Cambridge (which primarily decides who's at the front and who's at the back in ceremonial processions) contains a special category for Professors who are not Doctors, which kind of implies that such people must exist.

ETA: I see the question has now been edited in such a way that this is no longer an answer to it.

Daniel Hatton
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In France, in order to be allowed to apply for a "Maître de Conférences" position (~=Associate Professor), one must either have a PhD or have 3 years of professional activity (excluding teaching and research) during the last 6 years. See this link (in french) for more details. There is a similar rule for Professor positions (habilitation or 5 years of professional activity during the last 8 years).

Therefore, in France, there may be Associate Professors or Professors who do not have a doctorate. Note that, however, most of them do.

GBathie
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In certain regions of Germany, you need a habilitation (above a PhD) to get a top-level W3 professorship, though there is wiggle room for "equivalent qualifications". See for example https://inspirehep.net/jobs/1854066.

In the UK, Cambridge is recruiting the Stephen W. Hawking Professor of Cosmology, who must hold "a PhD or equivalent postgraduate qualification": https://inspirehep.net/jobs/1849843.

So it looks like the answer to your question is that it is possible to get such a job without a PhD. In practice, I think it is quite rare.

Mister Mak
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    I don't think these are counterexamples, actually. There are valid and accepted research doctorates that aren't called PhD. – Buffy Mar 31 '21 at 14:53
  • By "or equivalent qualifications", they mean DPhil instead of PhD. However, DPhil = PhD, so there's no counter-example here. – Nik Dec 24 '21 at 21:57
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Academia has turned into a meat grinder and generally people who have a PhD will try to keep people without a PhD out purely because they didn't go through the same process.

There continues to be an inflation of qualifications for every area, classically a PhD was not needed not valued- Newton didn't have a doctorate nor did many important scientists in the past that worked at universities.

FourierFlux
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    Seventeenth century credentialing isn't relevant to the Q at hand – Azor Ahai -him- Mar 30 '21 at 16:14
  • No, but it's worth understanding how requirements have changed and what has driven that change. In many of the other linked answers the same answer is essentially given. – FourierFlux Mar 30 '21 at 16:16
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    This answer unnecessarily assumes ulterior motives where there probably aren't any. In any field, organizations try to hire candidates that have the best and most relevant expertise for the job. In academia, people don't get hired for having a PhD, but for having a strong research profile. That most people with a strong research profile also have a PhD is a byproduct of the fact that a PhD is a 3-5 year research traineeship. – lighthouse keeper Apr 02 '21 at 07:13
  • Academics have always been more interested in the process and the formalities associated with it than the result. This is why most scientific papers are not reproducible and why the name of the university is generally more important then the specifics of someone's work for hiring. What I wrote isn't even debatable. – FourierFlux Apr 02 '21 at 12:19