What Comes After a Master's Degree? PhD, MBA or Done

Your master's is done, you have been working for a few months or years, and at some point the question comes up: what comes after a master's degree? Formally the answer is short. In the higher education system only one level sits above the master's, and that is the doctorate. In practice you have five options: do a doctorate, add an MBA, take a second master's, build specific skills with certificates, or leave it at the master's.

I go through the five in turn, with what each gives you formally and my view on who it suits. This article describes the rules in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The short version first: most people who ask me this do not need a higher degree. They need a clear answer to which position they want next.

What comes after a master's degree in the system?

The German qualifications framework for higher education sorts all degrees into three levels: bachelor's, master's and doctoral. As routes onward from the master's it names two things: the doctorate and continuing education. There is nothing else on the ladder.

Two points follow, and they are often mixed up:

• Only the doctorate is higher than a master's. Dr. and PhD are the degrees of the third level.
• An MBA, a second master's, an LL.M. or an M.Eng. is not higher. They all sit on the master's level, whatever order you earn them in.

The Habilitation that some academics add after the doctorate is not another degree. How the degrees relate and in which order you write them is covered in the overview of academic degrees.

What can come after a master's degree: five options compared

A doctorate after a master's degree: the only level above

With a master's you meet the formal requirement for a doctorate. The qualifications framework names the master's from universities, universities of applied sciences and arts and music colleges as entry to the doctoral level. For access it makes no difference which type of institution you studied at. Everything else is set by the faculty. As a rule that means a minimum grade, a master's close to the doctoral subject and a supervisor who accepts your topic.

So admission is rarely the obstacle. Time is. The German Science and Humanities Council reports an average doctoral duration of 4.7 years in Germany, and 5.7 years without medicine and health sciences. External doctorates, the usual route for people in work, come in at around 5 years. Which routes are faster and why is broken down in how long a part-time PhD really takes.

From my consulting work, a doctorate after a master's pays off in three cases:

1. You want to go into research or university teaching. For a professorship there is practically no way around the doctorate.
2. Your target role expects the title. In some industries and at some levels the doctorate is an unspoken hiring criterion. You can tell from the CVs of the people who hold your target position today.
3. You have a topic that will carry you for years. Without one it becomes a slog, however good the programme is.

If you only want one more title on your business card, you pay for it with four to six years of evenings and weekends. I say that very directly in conversations, even though I am doing a doctorate myself. The routes for working professionals, from the individual doctorate to structured programmes elsewhere in the EU, are on the page doctorate while working, and the cost side is in what a doctorate costs.

An MBA after a master's degree: same level, different goal

The MBA is a continuing-education master's. The model ordinance of the German federal states says two things about it. First, continuing-education master's degrees lead to the same qualification level and the same entitlements as consecutive ones. Second, they require qualified professional experience of not less than one year.

For you this means an MBA after a master's is not a step up the ladder. It is a second degree on the same level with different content. It makes sense when your first master's was a specialist one, for example in engineering, computer science, psychology or law, and you are now expected to answer for budgets, people and strategy. If you already hold a master's in business administration, the MBA teaches you little that is new. Then network and specialisation count, and you should weigh them soberly against the price.

The difference between the two formats is explained in MBA vs master's, and the programmes for people in work are on the part-time MBA page. And if you want to keep the doctorate open, the MBA does not block it. Details are in PhD after MBA.

A second master's or a certificate after a master's degree

A second master's is the right choice when you change subject or need a degree that a profession explicitly requires. If you want to move from engineering into law, from business into psychology, or into a public-sector career with fixed entry rules, a certificate will not get you there. Work out two things first: what will be credited from your first master's and what the second degree costs. Both are regulated differently by each federal state and university. The details on admission, cost and tax are in second degree.

A certificate is the right choice when you are not missing a degree but a topic: data science, employment law, project leadership, sustainability reporting. University certificates take weeks to months, not years, and cost a fraction. In Switzerland the usual format is the CAS, more on that under CAS, DAS and MAS. An overview of short formats for people in work is on the page continuing education while working.

When nothing has to come after a master's degree

The fifth option is taken seriously least often, and for most people it is the right one. The master's is a full degree of the second level. It carries most leadership careers and keeps the doctorate open in case you want it later.

I ask three questions before I talk about programmes:

Which door is closed? If you are not getting a specific position because a degree is missing, the case is clear. If you only feel that something should come next, a degree is often the answer to the wrong question.

Are you missing knowledge or proof? Knowledge comes from a certificate or from the job. You need proof only where someone asks for it.

What does waiting cost you? The doctorate will not run away, and the MBA requires professional experience anyway. Two or three years of experience almost always make the decision better.

What comes after a master's degree in Austria and Switzerland

In Austria the picture is the same: the doctoral programme follows the master's. The Universities Act sets a duration of at least three years, and that includes PhD programmes.

In Switzerland the doctorate sits at the universities, in the sense of the cantonal universities and the federal institutes of technology. If you come from a university of applied sciences, you do your doctorate in cooperation with one of them as a rule. One point matters for people in work: swissuniversities states explicitly that continuing education does not lead to a doctoral title. A CAS or MAS is continuing education alongside your job, not a step towards the doctorate. How the two countries organise the doctorate for working professionals is covered in part-time doctorate in Austria and Switzerland.

Conclusion: what comes after a master's degree depends on your goal

What comes after a master's degree? On the ladder, only the doctorate. Everything else is a step sideways: the MBA for the move into leadership, the second master's for a change of subject, the certificate for a single topic. And for many people the master's is simply the degree that is enough.

The order I recommend: name the target position first, then check what it requires, and only then look for a programme. Do it the other way round and you may study the wrong thing a second time.

If you want to go through this for your situation, with an honest assessment of whether a doctorate or an MBA moves you forward or whether you can save yourself both, book a free initial consultation. Or start with the 10-minute check if you want to sort things out for yourself first.