Promotion (Germany)

A doctorate (from Latin docere, "to teach") or doctor's degree (from Latin doctor, "teacher") or doctoral degree (from the ancient formalism licentia docendi) is an academic degree awarded by universities that is, in most countries, a research degree that qualifies the holder to teach at the university level in the degree's field, or to work in a specific profession. There are a variety of doctoral degrees, with the most common being the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), which is awarded in many different fields, ranging from the humanities to the scientific disciplines.

In the United States and some other countries, there are also some types of vocational, technical, or professional degrees that are referred to as doctorates in their home countries, though they are not technically doctoral level as they are not research degrees and no defense of any dissertation or thesis is performed. Internationally, however, the use of doctor to refer to these degrees is not universally accepted. Many universities also award honorary doctorates to individuals who have been deemed worthy of special recognition, either for scholarly work or for other contributions to the university or to society.

The term doctor derives from the Latin docere meaning "to teach". The doctorate (Latin: doctum, "[that which is] taught") appeared in medieval Europe as a license to teach Latin (licentia docendi) at a university. Its roots can be traced to the early church in which the term "doctor" referred to the Apostles, church fathers, and other Christian authorities who taught and interpreted the Bible.

The right to grant a licentia docendi (i.e. the doctorate) was originally reserved to the Catholic church, which required the applicant to pass a test, to take an oath of allegiance and pay a fee. The Third Council of the Lateran of 1179 guaranteed the access—at that time largely free of charge—of all able applicants. Applicants were tested for aptitude. This right remained a bone of contention between the church authorities and universities that were slowly distancing themselves from the Church. The right was granted by the pope to the University of Paris in 1213 where it became a universal license to teach (licentia ubiquie docendi). However, while the licentia continued to hold a higher prestige than the bachelor's degree baccalaureus, the latter was ultimately reduced to an intermediate step to the magister and doctorate, both of which now became the exclusive teaching qualification. According to Keith Allan Noble (1994), the first doctoral degree was awarded in medieval Paris around 1150.

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