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Posted May 16, 2014

Postgrad Title Change - or, Call Me Doctor!

For many postgrads, having those three little letters after their name, or being able to call themselves 'Dr', can be the thing that keeps them focused during the long, lonely days of completing their thesis. When the words are blending into each other as you try to finish your write-up, planning what you will wear under your flashy graduation gown, or the first cheque you will sign as a Doctor of Philosophy can be useful visualisations.

Beyond Academia

The reality, however, is that once the Vice Chancellor has doffed his or her cap on you, you've picked up your certificate and posed for the obligatory photo with your mum, the title itself means very little to the world outside academia.

First, the more formal modes of address are slipping out of everyday use, and so addressing someone as Dr in normal social interaction looks a little forced. While in more formal settings, such as wedding invitations, or job interviews, it is still appropriate to use full titles, in more casual everyday use, the use of Dr in daily speech can look a little pompous. Academics often play down their title in such settings because it can create social barriers. There are some occasions when it might give respectability and 'clout', for example, when renegotiating your postgrad loan, or dealing with patronising cold callers, but on the whole, Dr should be saved for university contexts or your granny's boasts.

It is socially acceptable to make use of your title in key identity documents. You can add your title to your driving licence, passport, bank account and other official documents, which is easily done by sending them a copy of your certificate, or amending on renewal. The main reason for doing this is consistency: being Mr or Ms or Mrs on one account and Dr elsewhere can cause confusion.

Miss, Mrs or Dr?

However, some PhDs maintain multiple identities very effectively. For example, many women like the freedom that using Dr brings because it frees them from having to identify their marital status with Miss, Mrs or Ms, which men do not have to worry about. Some married women academics often have two distinct names: Mrs Married Name at home and for banking etc; Dr Maiden Name at work, although this can cause problems if they choose to publish work later in their married name.

In The University

If you work in a university as a postdoc, researcher or lecturer, just about everyone around you will be a PhD and, beyond the name on your door, hardly anyone will address you that way day to day. The exception is the shy new student who insists on addressing you as Dr, and you, in turn, will probably insist they call you by your first name.

In the university context, the PhD is a badge of your acceptance as a junior scholar: you have done your time, so you're allowed 'in'. Your colleagues will take that for granted and forget you have a PhD most of the time. Once you graduate, or even before, the treadmill of publication takes over as the new badge.

So Why Bother?

With all this cynicism and game playing over university etiquette, you might ask whether the title is worth it. It is. While the 'proper' doctors (the medics) should make use of their title in daily life - after all, you don't want to be the one called to a medical emergency on a plane, do you? Their title is honorary. You are the one who completed the research, the one accepted as an expert by fellow experts. The main person who needs to know the title is YOU: as a daily reminder of your hard work and skills.

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2 comments

happy scholar Dec. 8, 2016, 8:59 p.m.

Hmmm...pretty sure the "honorary" title MD is earned with years and years of commitment, sweat, and tears. Much like you with PhDs, MDs are "experts" in their chosen specialties.

MorganKatarn Nov. 30, 2019, 11:33 a.m.

Happy Scholar ... that may be the case but it doesn't change the fact that the use of the title by medical doctors, most of whom don't hold MDs or equivalent (in the UK), is honorary.

It's no comment on their knowledge or commitment, it is just a fact that most medical doctors do hold hold doctorates. Their use of the title doctor is more of a job title, like saying Nurse Ratchet or Judge Judy

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