Candidate of Philosophy
master's degree
Candidate of Philosophy can refer to the US degree or status of Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil. or Ph.C.) granted to Ph.D. students who have been accepted as candidates for that degree, or (as a direct translation) to degrees or former degrees at bachelor's or master's level from some Scandinavian countries.
United States
In the United States, it is normal for graduate students working toward a doctorate to take coursework followed by examinations (known variously as candidacy examinations, comprehensive examinations or qualifiers) after which they become candidates for the doctorate. At a few institutions, this status is officially recognized either by a degree or some other official title. This is normally intended to be an interim status, prior to the award of a doctorate, not to be confused with the terminal master's degree awarded by some programs to those who leave after their candidacy examination. Some universities grant a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree to students who have been accepted for candidacy.
The first Candidate in Philosophy degree in the United States was first awarded at the University of Michigan in May 1966, two years before Yale University first awarded the first MPhil in 1968. During the 1960s, Candidate in Philosophy degrees were also awarded at Indiana University, Northwestern University, University of Michigan, and University of Minnesota.
University of California
In recent years, seven of the ten University of California campuses offer the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree to those who have passed the candidacy exam for the PhD in some programs. On some campuses it is only awarded to those leaving without a master's or a doctorate, however at UC San Diego such a practice seems forbidden.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q47778751. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1966 and 1968.
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This entry incorporates text from “Candidate of Philosophy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.