Ho trovato un articolo di cui allego uno stralcio:
The doctorate is the highest academic degree that universities in the UK can award.
The traditional and still the most common doctorate in the UK is the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD or DPhil), a research degree awarded for demonstrating ability to carry out academic research and to produce new knowledge. A typical earned (as opposed to honorary) doctorate in the UK involves three years full-time study, or part-time equivalent, much of it involving research at the leading edge of the discipline. To gain the award, a student is typically required to make a substantial original contribution to knowledge, evidenced through a thesis that is examined by academic peers.
Entry standards into the PhD are usually defined by prior academic attainment, most usually in the form of at least a second-class honours degree.
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But the traditional PhD model is now being challenged by a growing diversity of types of doctoral degree, including PhD by publication, Professional Doctorates, and New Route PhD. Traditional expectations of the PhD are being challenged by the new context within which research degrees are now situated and evaluated, including a new emphasis on research training, supervision, submission rates and external definition of the quality and standard of awards.
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Since it first arrived in the UK in the early twentieth century, the PhD has been the research degree of choice. Whilst its supremacy is not in itself under attack, the emergence of new forms of doctorate within the last two decades has diversified the portfolio of doctoral provision, allowed more niche-marketing, and been a response to changing needs and opportunities. Alongside the traditional PhD, many UK HEIs now offer one or more PhDs by publication (rather than by thesis) (Wilson, 2002),
practice-based doctorates (for example in the creative and performing arts), professional doctorates (in a variety of forms and formats), and more recently the New Route PhD.
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Pearson (1996) sees the professional doctorate ‘‘as a form of
professional education in which students are introduced to the professional practice of research and scholarship, with the supervisor responsible for assisting students to become independent practitioners’’.
Professional doctorates take many different forms, which reflect the different needs of the subject areas involved.
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the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) (Hatton, 1994) (...) are now well established in the UK, and professional doctorates are starting to appear in other subjects.
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The New Route PhD (which some universities have chosen to call an Integrated PhD) was first introduced in the UK at the start of the new millennium, initially as a pilot project in ten universities. The pilot proved successful, and the brand and format has since been made available to other universities across the sector. The aim of this new model is to create a UK doctorate that has more appeal to international
students, particularly those who might otherwise find it attractive to study for a PhD in North America. The New Route PhD is modelled on the North American doctoral model, with taught elements (including research training and advanced disciplinary study) and a smaller thesis, but it is shorter (four years, the first of which is largely dedicated to taking taught courses) and therefore cheaper, but no less rigorous intellectually.
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The relatively slow development of new forms of doctorate in the UK has been partly a reaction to mixed messages about the suitability of some of the variants being explored both in and beyond the UK. In Australia, for example, Sheely (1996) notes that ‘‘there has been considerable debate about the validity of alternate PhD programs and suggestions that both the quality of work submitted and the quality of the experience for the candidate would be less than that of a ‘real’ PhD.’’
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In the UK, Winter, Griffiths and Green (2000) found that
many examiners of practice-based doctoral theses in a range of disciplines commented on a lack of intellectual grasp, coherence, engagement with the literature, originality, and generalisability, along with methodological weakness and poor presentation.
Slow development also reflects an element of uncertainty in the UK research degree market, which now has a variety of types of doctoral award on offer, but lacks clarity and coherence (Bourner, Bowden and Laing, 1999).
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Mi pare che le varie forme di dottorato sopra descritte e criticate abbiano comunque un orientamento di ricerca, quindi un po' diverso (e forse di più alto livello) dalla nostra laurea quinquennale, a meno che sia quella di indirizzo sperimentale.

Per quanto ne so, il nostro titolo di dottore ha valore solo in Italia (e significa semplicemente "laureato") poichè solo da noi la laurea ha valore legale; non è così negli altri Paesi, dove i laureati rimangono "Mr" o "Ms" (mentro solo chi ha il PhD è "Dr") e dove hanno creato le certificazioni proprio per sopperire al fatto che, senza un valore legale, non ci sono sbarramenti per accedere ai vari corsi e anche per esercitare le varie professioni.
Infatti da loro esistono anche i "conversion courses"...
Se poi la nostra laurea fosse equivalente al loro doctorate, allora non capisco l'esistenza e l'utilità dello SoE...
