also: てつがくはかせ
Doctor of Philosophy; PhD
Refers to the academic degree, not the person holding it. The reading てつがくはくし is standard; てつがくはかせ is an older or less common variant.
He earned a PhD from the University of Tokyo.
The deadline to submit the PhD dissertation is next month.
Standard kanji spelling for the academic degree.
Alternate reading using はかせ for 博士; less common in modern usage.
Compound of 哲学 (tetsugaku, 'philosophy') and 博士 (hakushi, 'doctorate'). The reading はかせ for 博士 is an older form, now largely replaced by はくし in modern Japanese.