academic degree,
degree an award conferred by a college or university signifying that the recipient has satisfactorily completed a course of study; "he earned his degree at Princeton summa cum laude"
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field (eg. PhD). In some countries, the highest degree in a given field is referred to as a terminal degree, although this is by no means universal (the phrase is not in general use in the U.K. , for example), practice varies from country to country, and a distinction is sometimes made between terminal professional degrees and terminal research degrees (such as the J.S.D. , or S.J.D.).
OmegaWiki Dictionary
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Doctorate One of the highest earned academic degrees conferred by a university.
