First professional degree

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A first professional degree is an academic degree designed to prepare the holder for a particular career or profession, fields where scholarly research and academic activity are not the work, but rather a profession such as law, medicine, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, social work, accounting, engineering, religious ministry, or education. Professional degrees may be awarded as undergraduate or graduate (graduate-entry) degrees. If offered as a graduate-entry program, they are typically awarded as either a professional master's degree or a "professional doctorate" degree. However, regardless of whatever they are called (bachelors, Masters, or Doctorate); all "first professional degrees" are all equivalent to one other. For example, if someone from outside the US whose first professional degree is a "bachelors", their degree would be considered equivalent to a "doctorate" in the United States. (eg. LLB = JD, MBBS = MD, BDS = DDS, etc.)

A first professional degree is generally required by law or custom to practice the profession without limitation. An advanced professional degree provides further training in a specialized area of the profession.

Some first professional degrees such as the Juris Doctor, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, Doctor of Pharmacy, Doctor of Dental Surgery, Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Optometry and Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine have the term "Doctor" in the title, but are not equivalent to academic research doctorates such as the Ph.D. degrees. They may be more correctly referred to as professional undergraduate degrees and are usually considered as such, even if they require a previous degree for admission. [1]

It should be noted that titling of first professional degrees in certain professional fields as a "doctorate" is mainly an American higher-education practice. In many other countries, the equivalent degree is often a bachelor's or master's degree. In fact, U.S. law schools used to name their law degree the LL.B (Bachelor of Law) before renaming the degree to J.D. (Doctor of Jurisprudence) (Yale Law School granted LLB degrees up till the 1970s when they also changed to the JD), US Medical schools used to grant (M.B.) Bachelor of Medicine degrees before they changed to the (M.D.) Doctorate of Medicine, also currently physical therapy programs in the US are transitioning their entry-level or "first professional degree" from the Bachelors or Masters to a "doctorate" as well. Most countries outside the US award doctorates only as higher level academic research degrees. Even in the U.S., not all fields have chosen to name (or rename) their first professional degrees "doctorates". For example in the field of architecture, the professional first degree is called Master of Architecture while in the field of fine art, its professional first degree is called Master of Fine Arts. Despite being named "masters" the masters degree programs teach at the same level as the "professional doctorate" programs in other fields so the naming is somewhat arbitrary. There is currently some debate in the architectural community to rename the degree to a "doctorate" in the manner that was done for the law degree decades ago.[2]

The title of the first professional degree, whether bachelors, masters or doctors therefore is somewhat "arbitrary" and varies from country to country or sometimes even within a single country. Regardless of the title of the degree (bachelors, masters or doctors), the first professional degree in a given profession is considered generally equivalent, and the same is true regarding advanced professional degrees and terminal academic degrees in that given field.


For example,

  • In medicine, the first professional degree is a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (B.M., Ch.B.), (M.B.B.S.) or Doctor of Medicine (U.S. M.D.) or (Canada M.D.C.M. or MD), degree depending on the country, while an advanced professional degree can be a Master of Science (e.g. Surgery), and the terminal academic research degree can be a Doctor of Medicine (non-U.S. M.D.) or a Ph.D. in a medical science (e.g. Anatomy).
  • In law, the first professional degree is a Bachelor of Laws, Bachelor of Civil Law or Juris Doctor degree, depending on the country. The advanced professional degree is the LL.M. (where the degree is taken in program geared to practitioners to develop or deepen a practice specialty, e.g., trial advocacy, taxation law, or intellectual property law). Generally, these types of LL.M. degrees do not have a thesis requirement, but may require a research paper. The terminal academic research degree is the J.S.D., LL.D. or Ph.D., depending on the university.
  • In engineering, Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Applied Science degrees are commonly awarded in the UK and Canada respectively, and the Bachelor of Science in an engineering field is awarded in the United States. The advanced professional degree usually awarded is the Master of Engineering, although some schools have the option of an Engineer's degree. The terminal academic research degree is the Ph.D. or DEng.


[edit] Professional degrees

Main article: Professional degree

In some fields, especially those linked to a profession (e.g. medicine, dentistry, law, architecture, pharmacy, social work, religious ministry, engineering, accounting, education, etc.), a distinction is to be drawn between a first professional degree, an advanced professional degree, and a terminal academic degree:

  • A first professional degree is generally required by law or custom to practice the profession without limitation.
  • An advanced professional degree provides further training in a specialized area of the profession.

A first professional degree is an academic degree designed to prepare the holder for a particular career or profession, fields where scholarly research and academic activity are not the work, but rather the practice of a profession. In many cases, the first professional degree is also the terminal degree because usually no further advanced degree is required for practice in that field even though more advanced professional degrees may exist. Such is the case with acupuncture. Physicians trained in that field generally receive a master's level degree, but are called 'doctor' after licensure in Rhode Island and other states.

[edit] First professional degrees

[edit] Typical advanced professional degrees

  • Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
  • Doctor of Divinity (D.D.)
  • Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.)
  • Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) (if granted outside of the United States): (advanced degree in countries that award a bachelor degree in medicine or surgery as first professional degree, usually awarded for outstanding research to a particular field of Medicine)
  • Doctor of Dental Science (D.D.Sc.) (advanced degree in countries that award a bachelor degree in dental surgery as first professional degree, usually awarded for outstanding research to a particular field of Dentistry)
  • Master of Surgery (M.S., M.Surg, M.Ch., Ch.M, or M.Chir) (Usually granted after completion of allopathic surgery training program in conjunction with a research thesis)
  • Master of Dental Surgery (M.D.S.), Master of Science in Dentistry (M.S.D.), Master of Dental Science (M.D.Sc), or Doctor of Clinical Dentistry (DClinDent) (these are usually granted at the culmination of a specialty training program in dentistry in those programs that also require research and a thesis to be completed)
  • Master of Engineering (M.Eng)
  • Doctor of Laws (LL.D) (outside the U.S.)
  • Master of Laws (where the degree is taken in program geared to practitioners to develop or deepen a practice specialty, e.g., trial advocacy, taxation law, intellectual property law).
  • Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.)
  • Master of Science (M.S., M.Sc.) (medicine, dentistry, pharmacy)

[edit] See also

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