Requirements for PhD, professor, etc.

[ivanveliki]

I would like to know what are the minimal legal requirements for getting a PhD degree, to become an associate professor and professor in the field of structural engineering? By requirements I mean are there any minimal number of published articles, how many of them must be in refereed journals, how many in journals with impact factor, how many books must have been published, in how many scientific projects somenone has to be participated, etc. It will be interesting for me to know what are these requirements in different countries.

Thank you in advance!

[yakwetu]

The standards differ from one country to the other. I don't know about legal requirements per se, but In UK for instance, it's NOT mandatory to publish papers in order to be awarded a PhD. In countries like China, you have to publish up to four papers, otherwise you won't graduate. Publishing papers especially in peer reviewed journals enhances one's reputation and resume in the academia. It also entails that your PhD work has been independently validated by experts in that field.

As a PhD student, if your route is to end up in the academia after completion of your studies, you have to publish papers if you want to land a faculty or post-doc position. It's rare for top Universities to employ someone without a publication record against their names.

The PhD process begins with identifying a topic, which you and your supervisor have agreed upon, a topic which provides a sufficient foundation for PhD study,. The topic should have potential of adding something new to the field of structural engineering, through independent and original works. Throughout the entire process, you will be guided by your supervisor and the doctoral committee who will be checking on your progress and and certain changes will be made throughout the journey where necessary. You then conduct experimental tests, analyse data, write thesis and present your work during the viva voce and if the examining panel is convinced, then the PhD is yours; and they will say Congratulations Dr ivanveliki

To become Professor, again the system is different from country to country. In UK for instance, the first faculty position is Lecturer, then you move to Senior Lecturer, then Reader and finally Professor. To move to the next notch, you need to meet certain benchmarks set by University e.g number of published papers, cutting edge research conducted, number of PhD/research students supervised, number of research grants won, and there are also other issues like existence of vacancies. The competition is quite stiff in many institutions, and academic staff are under massive pressure to deliver especially generating funds for University. That's why you find academic staff all over places like China and India trying to attract self sponsored students to join their labs, the number of students you attract, especially foreign student who pay £12,000-£16,000 tuiition fees, also plays some role in your progression.