Now there's a funny thing about the Cambridge PhD system, which is due to the fact that most PhD students already have a Master's degree when they start a PhD course. All PhD students are admitted for a one-year, probationary course called a CPGS course (Certificate of Postgraduate Study). To qualify for the certificate, you have to submit a dissertation and defend it in a viva. If you successfully complete that, you are approved for the award, and then registered to continue on as a PhD student.
So, today I received in the mail a thick, padded envelope from the Board of Graduate Studies, and inside was the following:
Dear Mr Benesh
I am glad to be able to tell you that the Board of Graduate Studies, on the recommendation of the Degree Committee for the Faculty concerned have agreed to approve you for the award of the Certificate of Postgraduate Study in Physics.
The Board have also agreed on the recommendation of the Degree Committee, to register you as a candidate for the PhD Degree from Michaelmas Term 2008, and to allow you to count towards the requirements for that degree all the three terms during which you were working for the Certificate. The effect of this decision is that no publication will be made of the award of the Certificate to you, and you will not be entitled to receive the Certificate as long as you remain on the Register of Graduate Students, nor subsequently should you submit a dissertation in candidature for the PhD, MSc or MLitt Degree.
So according to that last line, even though I've qualified for the certificate, I won't actually get the certificate, or even any sort of recognition for it, unless I fail to complete the PhD. And the letter that they send me to tell me this comes in a padded, unbendable envelope with cardboard backing, as if this letter is so important that I'll want an uncreased copy. Weird.
