In an academic context, which is a "higher" title: "Professor" or "Dr."?

[King of Kensington]

Is it true that even the lowliest adjunct (many but no means all of which hold doctorates) in the US can still be properly be called "Professor X"?

That's not the case in Canada or the UK though.  In the UK, it's only the equivalent of distinguished professors in America who get the title.  In Canada, tenure-track and tenured faculty can be called "Prof. X" but below that they're called lecturers or instructors and don't go by "Professor."

It seems that the Canadian/British/European approach makes more logical sense, since most professors hold doctorates but most doctorates aren't professors.

[RI]

A number of fields use Masters holders as Professors.

[Blue3]

Professor is just another name for teacher in college, to replace Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms. Anyone who teaches is a professor.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Professor is just another name for teacher in college, to replace Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms. Anyone who teaches is a professor.

Not uniformly true. "Professor" is the college equivalent to "teacher", but "Doctor" is a title reserved for people with doctorates (obviously.) There are professors without doctorates, hence the title of just "professor."

To answer the question, I wouldn't consider either a "higher" title, but Doctor is probably a greater distinction than just professor.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Professor is more academic than Doctor.

[Blue3]

Professor is just another name for teacher in college, to replace Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms. Anyone who teaches is a professor.

Not uniformly true. "Professor" is the college equivalent to "teacher", but "Doctor" is a title reserved for people with doctorates (obviously.) There are professors without doctorates, hence the title of just "professor."

To answer the question, I wouldn't consider either a "higher" title, but Doctor is probably a greater distinction than just professor.

But anyone with a doctorate is still called "Professor" in the classroom.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Professor is just another name for teacher in college, to replace Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms. Anyone who teaches is a professor.

Not uniformly true. "Professor" is the college equivalent to "teacher", but "Doctor" is a title reserved for people with doctorates (obviously.) There are professors without doctorates, hence the title of just "professor."

I'm teaching in College, but I'm not called "Professor".

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Professor is just another name for teacher in college, to replace Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms. Anyone who teaches is a professor.

Not uniformly true. "Professor" is the college equivalent to "teacher", but "Doctor" is a title reserved for people with doctorates (obviously.) There are professors without doctorates, hence the title of just "professor."

I'm teaching in College, but I'm not called "Professor".

Are you full time?

Professor is just another name for teacher in college, to replace Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms. Anyone who teaches is a professor.

Not uniformly true. "Professor" is the college equivalent to "teacher", but "Doctor" is a title reserved for people with doctorates (obviously.) There are professors without doctorates, hence the title of just "professor."

To answer the question, I wouldn't consider either a "higher" title, but Doctor is probably a greater distinction than just professor.

But anyone with a doctorate is still called "Professor" in the classroom.

Eh, I've called professors with doctorates "Doctor".

[Antonio the Sixth]

Professor is just another name for teacher in college, to replace Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms. Anyone who teaches is a professor.

Not uniformly true. "Professor" is the college equivalent to "teacher", but "Doctor" is a title reserved for people with doctorates (obviously.) There are professors without doctorates, hence the title of just "professor."

I'm teaching in College, but I'm not called "Professor".

Are you full time?

Half-time.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

In the case of my instructors, I will call them "Dr." unless I feel I have reason to believe, or otherwise am aware, that they lack a doctorate. Two of my instructors I refer to by "professor", thusly, and an adjunct I opted to call by his title, "detective", even though he asked we use his first name.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Professor is just another name for teacher in college, to replace Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms. Anyone who teaches is a professor.

Not uniformly true. "Professor" is the college equivalent to "teacher", but "Doctor" is a title reserved for people with doctorates (obviously.) There are professors without doctorates, hence the title of just "professor."

I'm teaching in College, but I'm not called "Professor".

Are you full time?

Half-time.

I wonder if there's a distinction. I've never had anything other than full time professors. I personally would refer to any person teaching one of my classes as "professor"

[Antonio the Sixth]

Professor is just another name for teacher in college, to replace Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms. Anyone who teaches is a professor.

Not uniformly true. "Professor" is the college equivalent to "teacher", but "Doctor" is a title reserved for people with doctorates (obviously.) There are professors without doctorates, hence the title of just "professor."

I'm teaching in College, but I'm not called "Professor".

Are you full time?

Half-time.

I wonder if there's a distinction. I've never had anything other than full time professors. I personally would refer to any person teaching one of my classes as "professor"

I think it has more to do with the setting than with the amount of hours I work. I teach sections of 20some students who are on average only 3-4 years younger than me, so it's just more natural for both of us to be on a first-name basis. I'd feel incredibly awkward (more awkward than I already do, I mean) if they called me Professor.

[muon2]

Perhaps it depends on which academic context one is looking at at US institutions.

From the point of view of the student, anyone teaching who isn't a grad student will generally be called a professor, regardless of the degree held. Some grad students can even get that distinction as well, but some don't depending on the nature of the class and the knowledge of the student. Dr. would be reserved for those with that degree. so Dr. might be seen as higher.

A frequent case is when a class may have multiple sections under a single faculty member, and that's the name the student sees - that's the professor. An instructor in the section is then usually not referred to as the professor, but still could be Dr. suchandsuch if appropriate. That would make professor more important than Dr.

From the point of view of the faculty there is a hierarchy of academic ranks. Teaching assistant, instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, and full professor. Some of the full professors may also have endowed positions, but usually all full professors count as the same rank. Dr. is usually held by most of the permanent faculty, so saying someone holds the rank of professor is clearly superior to just Dr.

Then there's the point of view of the support staff. They usually don't want to keep track of academic ranks, so they only use professor when directing students about who they should speak with, as in "Go talk to your professor." When the staff addresses the faculty they use Dr. whenever appropriate. Dr. is the most substantive title in this case.

It is different in Europe. I recall going to a conference in Switzerland and at my hotel they seemed very impressed that I was both a PhD and professor (even at a rank below full) and took to calling me Herr Doktor Professor. So context is everything with titles.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

In most countries the title 'Doctor' applies to anyone who earns a Doctorate, while the title 'Professor' is a matter of rank and is given to senior academics. It's American usage is very unusual.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It is different in Europe. I recall going to a conference in Switzerland and at my hotel they seemed very impressed that I was both a PhD and professor (even at a rank below full) and took to calling me Herr Doktor Professor. So context is everything with titles.

I suspect they were just being formal, as is the norm in the German university tradition.

[King of Kensington]

Yeah, about 2% of Americans have a Ph.D. or a professional degree like the M.D. that allows them to have the title Doctor.   Far less than that are tenured or tenure-track university faculty.

So yes, well it is of course accurate (and perfectly correct) to call a full-time faculty member with a Ph.D. either Dr. or Professor it seems that Professor is the "higher" title to me. 

In the end, most doctorate holders are not professors but most professors have doctorates.

[Blue3]

most professors have doctorates.

Do we have any stats to back that up? I remember hearing about 10% of professors in the US have a PhD.

[King of Kensington]

According to the BLS, 44% of postsecondary teachers have a doctoral degree, but this figure includes vocational teachers, graduate student TAs etc.

https://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_111.htm

According to AAUP, 67% of full-time professors have a PhD or first professional degree:

https://www.aaup.org/article/characteristics-full-and-part-time-faculty#.WHpX9hsrI2w

[Blue3]

Thanks.

[angus]

In an academic context, which is a "higher" title: "Professor" or "Dr."?

Professor, certainly.

I became Doctor angus the day I got my PhD, but it would be many years before I would become a Professor.  This is the case for most of my colleagues, who all did post-doctoral fellowships either with the government or universities, and sometimes in the private sector, for anywhere from two to four years. 

All the members of my department have PhD degrees, including all the adjunct professors.  This is true for all the departments in my university except in those cases in which the terminal degree in that field is not a PhD.  (There are also MD, EdD, ThD, DSC, etc., and some only have MS or MA degrees, but that's rare and limited to a few fields.)

I remember when I first started graduate school I asked my mentor whether I should call him Professor or Doctor, and he said, "Call me Dennis.  But if you must be awkward and formal, then call me Professor because I have earned it."  He, too, did several years of post-doctoral research after he got his PhD before becoming a member of the faculty.

That said, students don't always observe such rituals.  We are not very formal in the US.  I worked in Amsterdam for a while, and went to school in Germany as well, and I noticed that they are much more formal over there.  Also, I've been at conferences where there are Japanese and they are much, much more formal.  I've seen post-docs bowing and scraping before their professors.  We generally are on first-names bases with our faculty mentors when we are grad students and post-docs.  Also, students just call everybody Doctor Something without checking to see whether they are actually more appropriately called Professor.  I don't know any US professor who gets hung up on that sort of thing, though. 

But if someone actually has the title of Professor and you insist on being formal, then use that because it is "higher" than Doctor, and they would have had to jump through additional hoops after obtaining the doctoral degree to be appointed to a position that carries the title Professor.

[King of Kensington]

In an academic context, which is a "higher" title: "Professor" or "Dr."?

Professor, certainly.

I became Doctor angus the day I got my PhD, but it would be many years before I would become a Professor.  This is the case for most of my colleagues, who all did post-doctoral fellowships either with the government or universities, and sometimes in the private sector, for anywhere from two to four years. 

All the members of my department have PhD degrees, including all the adjunct professors.  This is true for all the departments in my university except in those cases in which the terminal degree in that field is not a PhD.  (There are also MD, EdD, ThD, DSC, etc., and some only have MS or MA degrees, but that's rare and limited to a few fields.)

I remember when I first started graduate school I asked my mentor whether I should call him Professor or Doctor, and he said, "Call me Dennis.  But if you must be awkward and formal, then call me Professor because I have earned it."  He, too, did several years of post-doctoral research after he got his PhD before becoming a member of the faculty.

That said, students don't always observe such rituals.  We are not very formal in the US.  I worked in Amsterdam for a while, and went to school in Germany as well, and I noticed that they are much more formal over there.  Also, I've been at conferences where there are Japanese and they are much, much more formal.  I've seen post-docs bowing and scraping before their professors.  We generally are on first-names bases with our faculty mentors when we are grad students and post-docs.  Also, students just call everybody Doctor Something without checking to see whether they are actually more appropriately called Professor.  I don't know any US professor who gets hung up on that sort of thing, though. 

But if someone actually has the title of Professor and you insist on being formal, then use that because it is "higher" than Doctor, and they would have had to jump through additional hoops after obtaining the doctoral degree to be appointed to a position that carries the title Professor.

This makes sense.

Of course it would not be wrong to call a full professor with a Ph.D. either (and usually grad students in the anglosphere are on a first-name basis with their professors). 

[King of Kensington]

I once shared an office (no Ph.D. yet) and on the door the person the label for either a previous user or the person I was sharing it with was marked PROFESSOR X Y.  She (or maybe someone else in the office) crossed it off and marked in "Dr."

I don't know if she was doing this to "elevate" her status (hey I'm a Dr. now, not "just" a professor) or because it was a mistake and she didn't want to use a title she hadn't yet obtained.

I should say the tenured faculty office doors all say "PROFESSOR" next to their names.

[angus]

seems odd.  Ours would be hard to mark out.  They're little engraved plaques.  You'd have to start from scratch and make a new one if you wanted to change it.  All the plaques in my building say Dr. Name, even though it would be appropriate to use the greater title Prof. on the doors of about 80% of us.  All the faculty in the sciences at my university have PhD degrees--though not all are professors of any rank--and most did at least 2 years of post-doctoral research (similar to the habität of the German/Dutch system, and exactly like the postdoc of the English and French systems).  I think this is probably the case with the humanities as well.  In the social sciences some have EdD or DSW degrees, and a few of them in the fine arts have just MFA degrees (that is the terminal degree in their fields, so presumably their candidates are qualified to seek professorships).  On those offices they have Prof. Name on the door.  Not, I think, because Prof. is somehow a lesser title (in fact it is higher in the sense you asked about), but rather because if they didn't put that they'd have to put Mr. Name or Ms. Name and it might look like cheese.  

They don't do this in the library.  Librarians are hired as tenure-track faculty members, and subject to the responsibilities and privileges thereunto appertaining, but they are not hired with the title Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor.  Also, their terminal degree is the MLS degree, so they don't have the title "Dr." either.  On their doors the plaques actually read Mr. Name or Ms. Name.  But those offices are all in the library, so it's not like there's a mix of Dr. somebody and Mr. somebody in the same corridor.

When I was working as a visiting post-doc in Amsterdam, I noticed that they use Herr Doktor Professor so-and-so, like the Germans, for the PI in the group.  All the other faculty are just called Herr Doktor so-and-so, just like the post-docs are.  (Well, except that we were all on a first-name basis anyway in that particular group, but formally the PI has the title Dr. Prof.)  In seminars and in manuscripts, however, they use the same convention we use.  "...Einstein et al. showed that..."  No one writes "Herr Doktor Professor Einstein" in a paper, although the English do have the annoying habit of affixing the title "sir" to Isaac Newton's name when they talk about him.  I don't think that's an academic title, though.  The only titles I ever see in papers are "Mr." or "Ms." in acknowledgements.  I assume that this is to point out that the person acknowledged does not have a PhD.  (Stockroom managers or instrument technicians who are particularly helpful are often acknowledged in this way in the physical sciences.)  I tend to just write their names just as I'd write a professor's name in such acknowledgements, that is, with no title, although I think I am in a minority in that regard.  

The only reason I can think of that someone would deface a door plaque is to correct a mistake.  If someone had put Professor Angus on my door but I didn't actually have that title, I'd want them to correct it.  (Of course, I'd call buildings and grounds, or the dean's office, and ask them to make a new one, rather than defacing it with chalk or a Sharpie.)