PhD: British or North American?

Mark Goodacre sparked an interesting discussion with his post, PhD: UK or USA? Since I have a bit of hodge podge experience in educational systems on both sides of the pond, and I actually have a few minutes to blog, I thought I'd share my two pence (that's about four cents here in Canada).

The differences in PhD program(me)s reflect differences in the educational systems as wholes. The British system is geared much more toward specialization, while the North American system is geared more toward generalization.

In Britain, students begin a process of specialization by around fifteen years of age. They do exams to get into advanced level (A-level) courses, and these A-level courses determine what they can study in university. Now, to a certain extent this happens in North America, in that students in most educational regions must take certain courses in order to meet minimum university entrance requirements, but the degree of selectivity and specialization is not nearly so much as in Britain. In Britain a student will continue that specialization into their undergraduate education. So, a three-year bachelor's degree in theology, for example, will focus entirely on subjects within the broad discipline of "theology" (often including what we in Canada might call "religious studies"): biblical studies, Christian theology, Islamic studies, and so on.

On the contrary, most students in North America have a more generalized secondary education experience, and continue this generalization through their undergraduate degree, as the emphasis in North America is very much on a broad liberal arts approach at that level. One begins to see some specialization in the major of the undergraduate degree, but in many cases that is still not at the same degree of depth in the specialization as one finds in a three-year British bachelor's degree. It's not until the master's level that one really finds that degree of specialization in North America.

All this to say that the PhD program(me)s on each side of the Atlantic simply reflect the larger educational systems (and the values underlying those systems) of which they are a part. Someone entering a PhD programme in Britain from the British educational system is continuing a process of specialization begun in their mid-teens, while someone entering a PhD program in North America from the North American education system is continuing to reflect the value of generalization--even though at this stage it's generalization within a particular discipline--and setting any specialization within that generalist framework. Which system is better? That's hard to say. If one uses publications as a measuring stick, I certainly don't see any difference in outcome of the two systems: one finds top-quality books and articles written by both British and North American PhDs. If one uses appointment to significant academic positions as a measuring stick, again I don't see a difference.

All this goes wonky when you have someone like me, who was in the Canadian educational system through his master's degree and who is now completing a British PhD (and there are many like me--check out all the Americans at Edinburgh!). I have found that I do indeed have a broader knowledge within which to pursue my doctoral research, but that what I have lacked is some of the specialist knowledge. Thus, when I began my doctoral work, I deliberately took the first year to try and "patch some holes" in that knowledge. Now, in part this surely reflects the kind of master's work I did--a seminary divinity degree rather than a university classics or history or even religious studies degree. But I'm sure my experience is not all that unique. In doing a British PhD, I have loved the opportunity to pursue advanced research from the get-go in my programme, guided by a mentoring supervisor all along the way. For me this has been ideal. I'm sure, however, that I would have benefited from having some sort of comprehensive exams in the early stages of the programme, even if they were only oral exams based on a broad selection of readings across the discipline of biblical studies.

My two pence (four cents), for what it's worth. If my characterizations of British and North American systems are off in any regard, I'm quite happy to be corrected.