| There are three stages of admission to the doctoral
program: admission to graduate study when the student
first matriculates, admission to doctoral study
following successful completion of the preliminary
examination, and admission to candidacy following
successful completion of the comprehensive examination
and approval of the dissertation proposal. A minimum
of 60 credits, including 42 course and seminar
credits beyond the masters degree, and at least
18 dissertation credits are required. Students
entering the program from other disciplines should
expect to take more than the minimum number of
credits.
A student pursuing a Ph.D. degree is first admitted
to graduate study in information science. During
the first year of study and in preparation for
the preliminary examination, Ph.D. students should
complete initial course work, attend the Ph.D.
orientation session (a two-hour review of requirements
for the Ph.D. degree), and become familiar with
the faculty-prepared reading list. This consists
of the textbooks used during the latest two offerings
of the courses covered in the written preliminary
examinations.
Detailed Course Requirements
Residency and Registration Requirements
The preliminary examination has both a written
and an oral component. The closed book written
component is a six hour examination covering
basic course material. The oral examination,
to be taken after passing the written exam, consists
of researching and reporting to the faculty on
one of two comprehensive questions requiring
an in-depth analysis of a topic and synthesis
of ideas from various areas of information science.
Preliminary Examination Details
A student who passes the preliminary examination
is admitted to doctoral study. The student must
then prepare for the comprehensive examination.
Prior to the comprehensive examination a student
must complete:
- 42 credits of course and seminar study (See
Section 5), including
- 9 credits of methodology
courses,
- 6 credits of conceptual framework
courses,
- 18 credits of doctoral seminars;
- three
terms of full residency (See Section
6);
- the state-of-the-art paper accompanied
by the research plan (See Section
8).
After completing
these requirements the student is eligible to
apply to take the comprehensive examination (See
Section 8).
After successfully completing the comprehensive
examination, the student works with his or her
program advisor to select a dissertation committee
and prepare a dissertation proposal. The dissertation
proposal must be approved by the student's dissertation
committee. Upon successful completion of the
comprehensive examination and approval of the
dissertation proposal, the student’s academic
advisor recommends the student to the department
chair for admission to candidacy. This recommendation
is forwarded to the dean, along with the recommendation
of the department chair. The dean then informs
the student of admission to candidacy (Regulations,
p. 39). A minimum of 18 dissertation credits
is required. The final defense of the dissertation
is a public session announced in University-wide
media. The dissertation must be unanimously approved
by the dissertation committee. The dissertation
process is discussed in Section
9.
All requirements for the Ph.D. degree must be
completed in not more than six calendar years
from the time of first registration.
This process is summarized in Timeline. The
table represents a reasonable schedule of events.
Individual students may complete these steps
more rapidly or more slowly.
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