Colorado Technical University

What is a post doctoral degree? How long does it take to get one?

I was searching on google and I found out that one of my profs is a post doctoral student at a university in an other country, but he is in our country 9 months during the academic year and as much as I know he travels to that foreign country the whole summer. Is it possible to get a post doctoral degree by this way?

Public Comments

1. There is no such thing as a postdoctoral degree. A PhD, or technically any doctoral degree, is the highest academic level you can achieve. Post-docs are people who have already earned their doctorate degree. Once you've earned your doctorate, you are a recognized expert in your field and can qualify to hold professorship positions. However, especially in this economy, there are way more people with PhD's than there are professor jobs for. So those who can not get a regular professorship position, the starting entry level is Assistant Professor, becomes "postdoctoral students" instead where they do more research that can help further their specialization. But they are not really "students" working towards any kind of degree or anything. A better title for them used in other places are "postdoctoral research fellows" or "postdoctoral scholars". It's just a poorly paid and temporary research position where they wait it out until they can find their first real professor position.