A. Criteria for Doctoral Programs
- A doctoral program should contribute to the broad mission of the university.
- There should be a defined and complementary relation of the proposed doctoral program to other graduate programs on the campus, and in the case of a new degree, to other degrees in the unit.
- A doctoral program should derive from a body of knowledge established over a sufficient period to develop a substantial scholarly discipline of well-defined content, in a field of reasonable depth.
- A core faculty of demonstrated experience and achievement in graduate teaching and research should be available and committed to conducting the doctoral program.
- Normally, all of the core faculty should be members of the Graduate Faculty and a substantial proportion should have tenure. Evidence of scholarly productivity through publication or creative achievement through performances or exhibits should be presented.
- The core faculty should be sufficient in number to teach the graduate courses and conduct and supervise the research.
- The need for a doctoral program in the discipline should be demonstrated in terms of the potential contribution of its graduates to education, research, public service, or private enterprise.
- The demand for graduates of the program should be addressed in the proposal, but demand should not be the primary criterion for measuring the need for a doctoral program.
- There should be evidence of a potential clientele of qualified students for the doctoral program.
- There should be evidence that the proposing unit has the resources, available or committed, to mount a doctoral program, without diluting ongoing programs. The resources should be sufficient to support the necessary facilities, e.g., library, computer, laboratory, and so forth.
- A proposal for a new program should compare the proposed requirements with those of similar programs at peer institutions.
- The proposed doctoral program must meet the minimum requirements of the Graduate College for admission, credit, doctoral examinations, dissertation, and so forth, as stated in this handbook.
B. Requirements for PhD Programs
The PhD is a research degree. The unit proposing a PhD should have in place or under development a strong program of research and scholarship. A rigorous research component should be required in the graduate program.
A PhD program requires at least 96 hours of credit, divided into three stages. A doctoral student is considered to be in Stage I from initial enrollment in the Graduate College to completion of the master’s degree or its equivalent, namely at least 32 hours of graduate work here or at another university. Stage I ends with an evaluation of the student’s progress toward the doctoral degree, by examination or other formal review procedure. A doctoral student is considered to be in Stage II from completion of the master’s degree or equivalent to completion of all departmental requirements (except the defense and deposit of the dissertation), including passing the preliminary examination. Stage III is the time from the completion of Stage II to passing of the final defense and deposit of an approved dissertation, and consists of research and other activities.
C. Requirements for Other Doctoral Programs
Other doctoral degree programs must be judged by the above criteria, where appropriate, as well as the special criteria of the profession and the discipline.