The Doctor of Philosophy Degree program is planned by the student with the advisor to develop the student's ability to conduct research in a specialized field of education. The College of Education offers the Doctor of Philosophy degree on-campus only.
Upon admission to a Doctor of Philosophy program, each student is assigned an academic advisor in the student's area of specialization. The student and advisor plan a program of study to meet the student’s individual goals and general degree requirements. Departments may require that a copy of the program plan be kept on file.
Graduate students and advisors should be guided by the Graduate College policy on doctoral degree time limits. If a time extension is desired, it may be requested by completing a Graduate Student Petition, including an Academic Progress Plan. These petitions are considered and acted upon by the student’s advisor, the department, and the Graduate College. Each individual who has authority to act on the petition may either approve or deny the petition.
All students admitted to a Doctor of Philosophy degree program must fulfill Graduate College requirements for the doctoral degree, departmental requirements, and the following College of Education minimum requirements on the Urbana campus or through Urbana off-campus or online courses:
The purpose of the Ph.D. Research Area Requirement is to ensure that all Ph.D. students in the College of Education have sufficient coursework to attain proficiency in at least one research methodology and are able to conduct independent dissertation research.
The four areas of research—Interpretive, Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods—were chosen to represent the domain of methodologies prevalent in educational research and pursued by our graduate students and faculty. It is intended that the choice of a focus area will be consistent with a student’s dissertation research. All areas require a combination of introductory and advanced methods coursework. All students choose coursework in consultation with their academic advisor. Students must maintain a B average for all methodology courses.
All Ph.D. students shall conduct and present an educational research study by the end of their third full year in their graduate programs. This research should be undertaken with the expectation that it will contribute to knowledge in the area of the student’s Ph.D. program. In addition, an important objective of the Early Research Project is to familiarize faculty members with new Ph.D. students and their research interests and to examine ways in which these interests might be pursued in the doctoral program.
The Qualifying Examinations are written comprehensive examinations administered to doctoral students near the completion of their coursework and after completion of the Early Research Project. The Early Research Project must be completed and the results submitted to the Graduate Student Services Office by the academic advisor prior to a student beginning the Qualifying Examinations.
Purposes of the qualifying examinations in the College of Education include:
For all dissertations, approval for use of human subjects or confirmation that human subjects review is not required must be obtained from the Institutional Review Board prior to doing research on the dissertation topic. A letter showing approval from the Campus Institutional Review Board (IRB) must be provided to the department contact in the Graduate Student Services Office prior to the scheduling of the preliminary examination. Students should begin the approval process eight weeks prior to the examination.
The preliminary oral examination (prelim) follows successful completion of all required coursework, the early research requirement, the qualifying examinations, the research methods requirement, and human subjects approval. In addition, all incomplete grades must be changed to letter grades prior to the oral examination.
The purpose of a prelim is for a student to present the rationale and format for the dissertation. During the examination, an agreement is reached between the student and the committee concerning the proposed dissertation. Thus, the examination is held prior to the collection of data or other major work on the dissertation. The student must be registered in order to take the prelim. The student should consult the department for additional requirements.
The Ph.D. dissertation is intended to demonstrate the student’s capacity to conduct independent research. The student’s research should make an original contribution to knowledge (Graduate Faculty Action, February 15, 1973). The dissertation usually requires a year or more of study. Registration in dissertation research hours for on-campus or in-absentia students, after the completion of the required 64 hours beyond the master’s degree, is required. This registration typically comes after the coursework is completed and before the time limits are reached.
Final examinations are oral and open to the public. The final examination committee chair is responsible for convening the committee, conducting the examination, and submitting the Final Exam Result form to the Graduate Student Services Office.