Titles and Ranks 101
I originally intended to entitle this blog entry as “Robert’s System of Titles and Ranks,” but since most suggestions below came from already established sources I opted to simplify it. Anyway, as the title above suggests, this entry will talk about how one addresses another, particularly within an academic community.
Who is a professor? Who is the Professor? College instructors, regardless of their actual rank and position, are identified as professor. But not all college instructors have the rank of Professor. Personally, I believe only those who have such rank deserve to be called as one, as form of respect to their seniority, academic achievements and expertise. So how do you address your college instructors?
Instructors are usually bachelor’s degree holders, either fresh (and sometimes not so fresh) graduates or with some graduate units. They are to be addressed as Mr or Ms or Miss. For example, Juan dela Cruz is an Instructor; you address him as Mr Juan dela Cruz or Mr dela Cruz. It is not a practice to append the degree at the end of his name, to wit: Juan dela Cruz, BA, so do not do it.
Next in rank are the Assistant Professors. They are usually Master’s degree holders, at the very least, but sometimes, there are doctorate degree holders (especially if you start teaching already with a PhD). They are to be addressed in three ways. You can use the full spelling of the position when addressing for the first time in a document, e.g. Assistant Professor Juan dela Cruz. In succeeding mentions, you can use Asst Prof [Juan] dela Cruz, or Prof [Juan] dela Cruz.
Assistant professors and associate professors follow the same scheme. The rank of Associate Professor is awarded by merit. That means if you have published journal articles and satisfied other criteria for promotion, you can be promoted to the rank. Usually, Associate Professors have PhDs but it does not mean a Master’s degree holder cannot be one. Again, the basis of rising up to this rank is merit. In the first instance, you can use Associate Professor Juan dela Cruz. In succeeding mentions, you can use Assoc Prof [Juan] dela Cruz or Prof [Juan] dela Cruz.
The rank of Professor is the highest rank. Like the rank of Associate Professor, the rank of Professor is awarded by merit. By practice, only a full professor can be addressed with a fully spelled “Professor.” In this case, you use Professor Juan dela Cruz or Professor dela Cruz.
Dr? Dra? Or PhD? By personal preference, you only choose between using Dr and PhD (or MD, DrPH, DSc, DPA, as the case may be). Also, you don’t use Dra, even if you are addressing an MD, and most especially if you are addressing a PhD! For example, Juan dela Cruz has a doctorate degree. You can address him as Dr Juan dela Cruz or Juan dela Cruz, PhD. Now, if Juan dela Cruz is a college instructor with the rank of Associate Professor, you can address him as Associate Professor Juan dela Cruz, PhD. After that, you may address him as either Assoc Prof dela Cruz or Dr dela Cruz. In other universities abroad, they combine the rank and degree, e.g. Assoc Prof Dr dela Cruz. However, such form is not widely used in our universities.
How about Master’s degree holders? It is rare that MA or MS is appended in the name, e.g. Juan dela Cruz, MA. If Juan dela Cruz, MA is a college instructor, you can address him as Assistant Professor Juan dela Cruz even without the MA. The rank already denotes that he has an MA degree. I noticed, however, that some Master’s degrees are appended like MPA, MPM, MPAf, MHPEd and MPH. This may be used to distinguish their degrees from the usual MA or MS.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed. I did not use period (.) to in between letters of PhD, and after titles Prof, Mr, and Ms. In the British system, they drop the period; so, Mr dela Cruz, Ms dela Cruz, Dr dela Cruz, Prof dela Cruz, and Juan dela Cruz, PhD.
If you are curious, how about a Teaching Associate? I am a Teaching Associate. You can address me like this: Mr Jan Robert Go. Why? I have the same case with an Instructor, but I have a different rank. It’s complicated so I won’t discuss it now.
This is how I do my addressing of people. I hope I was able to share my method to everyone.
