The Doctor of Education degree (Ed.D.) is an undifferentiated terminal doctoral degree that prepares the student for advanced professional proficiency in education, and for scholarly study of professional problems. Like other doctorates, the Ed.D. is an academic degree of the highest level.

Since the Ph.D. is the most popular and common of the research doctorates among university professors in the United States, there is often a perceived bias in favor of the Ph.D. over other doctoral degrees, though the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) recognize numerous other doctoral degrees as equivalent and do not discriminate between them. A list can be found at: doctorate.