# How many PhDs in the country?



## whackin (23 Aug 2007)

i know its a question on the census form (i.e. to what level have you attained formal education) so does anyone know how many people living in this country actually hold a PhD??


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## Vanilla (23 Aug 2007)

That's also assuming all of those PhD awardees ( is that a word?) remained in Ireland though. I know at least one who didn't ( one of my brothers) so I'd imagine quite a few have left.

Not to mention those awarded abroad who have come to live here.


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## Christy (23 Aug 2007)

A question that has often crossed my mind, what does PhD actually stand for?


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## Satanta (23 Aug 2007)

Christy said:


> A question that has often crossed my mind, what does PhD actually stand for?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Philosophy


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## kramer2006 (23 Aug 2007)

Christy said:


> A question that has often crossed my mind, what does PhD actually stand for?


 
Doctor of Philosophy?


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## ClubMan (23 Aug 2007)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phd


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## ibaraki (23 Aug 2007)

At the event below, there was literature available that stated the number of phd's in the country.  Unfortunately I dumped my copy but someone at IRCSET may have the details

*IRCSET National Research Symposium 2006
“The Post-Doctoral Research Experience in Ireland”* 
Royal College of Physicians, Kildare Street, Dublin 2
Monday, 27th November, 2006​


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## Jaid79 (23 Aug 2007)

kramer2006 said:


> Doctor of Philosophy?


 
So if you have a Masters and where to compare both, would the PhD be a higher level of education?


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## DrMoriarty (23 Aug 2007)

Yup, level 10 as opposed to level 9:

[broken link removed]


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## ClubMan (23 Aug 2007)

Very _PC _that they used a rainbow rather than a hierarchy!


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## DrMoriarty (23 Aug 2007)

Of course, _some _level 10s are better than other level 10s...


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## ClubMan (23 Aug 2007)

Starting to sound like a _Scientology _discussion now!


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## Jaid79 (24 Aug 2007)

DrMoriarty said:


> Yup, level 10 as opposed to level 9:
> 
> [broken link removed]


 
So the PhD is the highest level of education available?

Jaid


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## DrMoriarty (24 Aug 2007)

It's the highest level of official accreditation, I suppose. 'Education' itself has no upper limit.

Nor should educational attainment necessarily be equated with 'intelligence' — there are plenty of halfwits walking around with PhDs!


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## Caveat (24 Aug 2007)

Related to this, what about 'professor'? Is the term merely conferred due to expertise etc or does it have any formal meaning?


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## ClubMan (24 Aug 2007)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor


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## DrMoriarty (24 Aug 2007)

In the Irish context (and many others, _except _the USA), Professor is a title/rank to which one is appointed, rather than an academic qualification. It would normally (but not always) imply at least a PhD and several prestigious publications on the part of the appointee. Or some pretty powerful 'connections'..!


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## whackin (25 Aug 2007)

Thanks for the info everyone. I was of the impression that there might be less than 5000 but I'm not sure of that now. 
A huge amount of PhDs awarded recently have been to overseas students (as far as I can see) so I imagine that might explain the difference in my own estimates.

I have mine anyway!!


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