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The use of "Dr.(c)" and "Mag.(c)" in Chile

The use of “Dr.(c)” and “Mag(c)” by graduate students in public presentations has increased to a noticeable level in Chile. This work presents two studies to offer a measure of the magnitude of this situation in university web sites and a measure of the confu- sion that this type of presentation may provoke to the public. The first study collected 915 professor’s names from 47 university websites searching for the use of “(c)” in their presentations. Results indicated that around 18% of faculty members were graduate students and they used the Dr.(c) and Master(c) form for self-presentation even though it is doubtful that all of them were in their last stage of their programs, which is the candidacy. The second study surveyed 119 undergraduate students searching for their understanding of the Dr.(c) suffix. Results indicated that around one third of a sample interpreted the Dr.(c) suffix as a credential equivalent to the Dr. suffix, which supported the idea that this type of self-presentation is confusing and deceiving.