A thesis and a dissertation despite being used interchangeably, also have many differences in various aspects. Below we will give details on the 5 main differences of a thesis and dissertation.
Country differences in definition
Because different countries or continents in general have different educational systems, the definitions of various academic terms will also not be the same. This stands for the dissertation vs thesis concepts, more specifically the differences are in Europe and the United States.Europe
In Europe, a thesis is a requirement to graduate from a doctoral or PhD program. It is a large body of original research that the student does over several years, which also contains references and relations to existing research that has been done by other people. The dissertation on the other hand is a smaller research project that is done to complete a Master’s program. It does not necessarily need to have original research, but the student must take a view and back it up with arguments collected from existing research in the form of literature review.The United States
In the United States, the definitions of a thesis and dissertation are completely opposite. The thesis in this case is the research project necessary for graduating from a master’s degree program, while the dissertation is done for doctoral degrees. So the thesis will contain the arguments developed mostly from existing research, while the dissertation will be complete when the student picks a topic which has not been explored yet and dedicates years to researching it and prove or disprove a hypothesis. In this article, we will explore the difference between thesis and dissertation from the U.S perspective and definitions.Type of Degree
The dissertation vs thesis difference is in what they are used for. The dissertation will be used to get the terminal degree or the highest qualification possible in different fields such as the doctoral or PhD degree. On the other hand, the thesis is used to mark the end of a master’s degree, so students will get their second cycle qualifications or education after their Bachelor’s Degree by presenting their thesis. There are also cases when a thesis or dissertation is not required and this depends on the type of program or institution that the student is completing their degree in. This mostly occurs with master’s degrees rather than PhD programs. Some masters programs will give students a choice between doing their thesis or completing an additional course. It is recommended that if students aim to continue their education and get a PhD qualification that they choose to complete the thesis instead of the course. That is because completing a thesis will add to your research experience and PhD programs will be more likely to accept you if you have already published some form of research. It is also better to do the thesis if you plan to get a PhD since the dissertation requires more extensive work than the thesis, so you will already have a basic understanding of the effort and work it takes to complete it.Data Collection
Another difference between thesis and dissertation is the way in which students go through the data collection process. Since the dissertation is the original research for which students graduate from a PhD, it mostly uses primary data such as:- Questionnaires or surveys
- Interviews
- Focus Groups
- Any other form of data collected by the student
- Books
- Articles
- Survey reports
- Existing studies
- Government or official statistics, etc.