Above the PhD?

 What is above a PhD?

A PhD is the highest degree you can study for. It isn't the highest degree, however, in France and Germany there is “habilitation”, which is a qualification showing you are an established researcher and allowing you to be appointed to a permanent professorshio, i.e. similar to tenure in the US. In the UK (and other countries that fiollow the UK system) they're are higher doctorates that are basically lifetime achievement awards – these are more common as honorary degrees rather than actual rather degrees.

In terms of recognition, there are also fellowships of professional societies that are given to senior academics, while these are all prestigious, those from national academies are more prestigious than those from subject-specific societies. Then there are prizes, again from subject-specific societies, from national academies, and Nobel's (and similar) from international bodies.

Comments : 

●There’s a tiny marine creature which starts its life as a larva crawling on the ocean floor; it has a primitive brain which it uses to find a suitable place to settle, and plants itself there. Once that’s done, it doesn’t need its brain any more, so he eats it.

 In a biology book describing this creature, a professor scribbled a comment on the page margin: “It’s kind of like getting tenure!”

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