The Transition from Graduate Student to Assistant Professor.
Universities typically require their professors to have doctoral degrees in their field, which generally takes students 6 years of full time study after the completion of a bachelor’s degree program.
Studying a standard PhD isn't the only way to gain a Doctorate degree; read about integrated PhDs, professional Doctorates and higher Doctorates.
In the United States, for example, a doctorate or graduate degree isn't required to get a teaching job at a law school. This is because a J.D. is already considered a postgraduate degree, unlike first law degrees in other parts of the world.
In summary, to become a psychology professor, you must earn at least a master's degree, and to further advance your career, you should earn a Ph.D. for tenure-track positions at a 4-year university.
It is this which justifies the award of the PhD degree. In contrast, in the humanities and the social sciences students often come with their own topics within the field in which the supervisor is expert, and academics give a service of research supervision. Being busy people, supervisors often have to ration the amount of attention they can give.
And the professor probably wonders at what point during his prestigious lifetime did grad school stop being a place for serious academic training for a few elite young scholars and turn into an extended career delay for undergraduates, a fantasy land for over-grown adults to imagine their love of Shakespeare and culture would one day translate into income and a title.
Step 1 Earn an undergraduate degree. The path to becoming a professor begins with a bachelor’s degree. It is a prerequisite to entering graduate school. A student may know the subject they want to specialize in from their first day of college, or may discover it later on.