Academic degree
Doctoral degrees or doctorates, such as the Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD or DPhil) or Doctor of Education (EdD or DEd) are awarded following a programme of original research that contributes new knowledge within the context of the student's discipline. Doctoral degrees usually take three years full-time. Therefore, in the UK it may only take seven years to progress from undergraduate to doctoral level – in some cases six, since having a Master's is not always a precondition for embarking on a doctoral degree. This contrasts with nine years in the United States, reflecting differences in the educational systems.
Magister degree
This master's degree was traditionally taken as a first degree before the Bologna Process. The degree usually lasted about 5–6 years and is structured into Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced progressional components. A new undergraduate magister degree, requiring at least 4 years of studies, was introduced in 1993. Since the introduction of the Bologna Process in 2005, the Magister has been broken into bachelor (formerly Basic/Intermediate) and master (formerly Advanced) components. However, the vast majority of students continue right through to complete the master's degree and, in effect, the duration and extent of the old Magister degree remains much as it was.