European International University

[Sagan]

What is professional Doctorate?

This Wikipedia explains it clearly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_do...doctorates

The long and short is this: Doctorates are either Research/Academic-based or Professional-practice-based degrees. The latter doesn't usually require an "original research dissertation", but rather competency in the field at the "highest academic level" of practice. 

So for example, any practicum based Medicine (M.D., OD, DDS, Doctor of Chiropractic, Doctor of Health Sciences, etc.,) are mostly skills based (12 years of OJT/In Filed Training alongside the academic university courses), practicum based and are usually licensed by a set of state and national exams, in order to practice. In most cases one must also have clinical hours of "real-world" experience under a seasoned licensed practitioner or organization to also qualify to practice...as in the Doctor of Psychology or Doctor of Social Work or Doctor of Counseling or Doctor of Physical Therapy...these examples dealing with both physical and mental health practice.

Unfortunately, there is misinformation here. Specifically, this post confuses professional doctorates with first professional doctorates. They are two different things.

Professional doctorates are very similar to scholarly doctorates (usually a PhD). In some systems, the professional doctorate has a "taught" component along with the doctoral thesis, while the PhD is thesis-only. In others, like the US, both are "taught"; they have courses followed by a dissertation. The difference is that the professional doctorate's dissertation advances practice while the scholarly doctorate advances scholarship--either by theory development or theory testing.

A first professional doctorate is another matter entirely. It is typically post-bachelor's (not master's) and does not normally include a master's along the way. It is 3-4 years of coursework; in some first professional doctorates students also undertake clinicals. The degree awarded qualifies the graduate to sit for licensure in the appropriate profession. Examples include the ones in the post above.

So, let's look at psychology and psychiatry. A psychiatrist earns an MD, which is a first professional doctorate. No thesis or dissertation. The Psychologist earns either the PhD or PsyD, the difference being the kind of research undertaken. The PhD would contribute to the scholarship in psychology while the PsyD would contribute to the practice of it.

The differences between first professional doctorates and academic (scholarly and professional) doctorates is stark. The difference between scholarly and professional doctorates can be muddied. Some doctorates with professional titles (like the EdD or DBA) are, in some schools, indistinguishable from the scholarly PhD. In other situations, the distinctions are clear and they hold. And there are plenty of people out there with a PhD whose dissertations didn't add to the scholarship in the field. But those are the distinctions between scholarly, professional, and first professional doctorates. Your mileage may vary.