Differences of doing a philosophy PhD in US, Canada and UK?

[peco]

Hi, everyone. I am an international (East Asian) applicant. I have difficulty with choosing PhD programs of philosophy in US, Canada and UK. The programs accessible to me have similar rankings, strengths and fitness with my areas. Therefore, I want to know more about the differences of doing a philosophy PhD in these three countries.

[Davidspring]

If you ended up in North America to do your PhD, you'd have more time to cultivate your philosophical interests by taking grad courses in your program.  I think that this is extremely important for those of us who are not from English-speaking countries.  We might also need time to make our English totally fluent.

[maxhgns]

The norm in Canada is to have a Master's degree before doing the PhD. Some of the top Canadian programs (Toronto, McGill, UBC, UWO) will accept PhD students straight from the undergrad, but not many (I think Toronto is the real exception). As a result, Canadian programs are shorter than their American counterparts (but longer than in the UK/Europe): you take courses for two years (one in some places), and then write your dissertation for the next 2-3 years. A Canadian PhD is a four-year affair, although programs usually fund for five years, and I think the average time to completion is six years. As an international applicant, however, those deadlines matter a lot (because of your VISA restrictions). You'll probably have to finish in five. To my knowledge, all of the English-language programs fully fund their students, but none of the French programs do. Most programs can only accept one or two international students a year, however. (Toronto might be the exception here, I'm not sure.)

 

In the UK,  a PhD is strictly a research affair. You get three years to write your dissertation (although a fourth year is not uncommon). That's it. When applying, you have to submit a full proposal, and when you get there you have to work on it. There's no coursework. Consequently, you must have an MA to get into the PhD programs. There is no application fee. Oxford and Cambridge are exceptions in most of these respects, and the way they work is really weird. You'd have to ask someone from there exactly how things are. Funding is very, very hard to come by for a UK PhD.

 

In the US, the norm is for people to apply to PhD programs straight from their undergraduate degrees. All of the reputable programs fund their students, though not always especially well. Students take two to four years of coursework (usually two), and work on their dissertations for the rest of their time. Average time to completion is something like seven years.

[pecado]

They all speak English.

Strangely the world is not only in English, and most of the greatest philosophy was not made in English.

 

 

[maxhgns]

10 hours ago, pecado said:

They all speak English.

Strangely the world is not only in English, and most of the greatest philosophy was not made in English.

 

 

That is false. In Canada, you can get your PhD in philosophy from Laval, UQTR, UQAM, Université de Montréal, all of which are exclusively French-speaking institutions, University of Ottawa, which is a bilingual institution with a fully bilingual program, and McGill, which is an English-speaking institution but which allows the submission of all materials in French.

[maxhgns]

1 hour ago, maxhgns said:

That is false. In Canada, you can get your PhD in philosophy from Laval, UQTR, UQAM, Université de Montréal, all of which are exclusively French-speaking institutions, University of Ottawa, which is a bilingual institution with a fully bilingual program, and McGill, which is an English-speaking institution but which allows the submission of all materials in French.

I forgot Université de Sherbrooke, which is also an exclusively Francophone institution at which you can earn a PhD in philosophy,