Should you do a Ph.D in Architecture?

The general objective of a PhD is to continue acquiring knowledge and although this sometimes causes happiness, it is usually not enough because the investment of time you need to finish a doctorate thesis. Actually, the realization of a Doctorate has other connotations that we will explain later.

The time required usually varies in different countries to obtain the title of Doctor, especially depending on the following stages:

1.- Admission. The time until admission to the doctoral program in the particular university and the department of the university.

2.- Title and Tutor. This is the period you invest until having a thesis title although this use to be provisional and may vary over time. In that period, you need to find a thesis director, which is an extraordinarily important figure for a young researcher. The director is indispensable to guide to the correct sources and ensure the choice of itineraries that often get lost, among other functions. 

In Europe, the different filters through which a thesis passes such as as pre-reading and intermediate controls are the responsibility of the director. For example, it has been heavily penalized if the director does not detect that a new thesis turns out to be a copy of another work. The director should also be responsible of the selection of the jury, and that makes the doctoral process in this area of the world an extremely serious and committed process, as it is in the United States and many other countries.

3.- The reading of the thesis. That period you take to be a doctor can vary from 3 years, which is a reasonable time for some European countries with a full time dedication, to 6 in some Anglo-Saxon universities if you dedicate a part-time. It is say, that you do other work activities within the university while developing the thesis. Some theses that lasted 30 years in realization are famous because the dedication was really intermittent.