Current PhD Candidates

Below is some basic information that all PHD candidates should be aware of.  Additional links for advising and degree plans, comprehensive exams, procedures and forms, financial aid, and further resources are on the left.

General Course Work Requirements

• All courses on the degree plan must have been taught by members of the Graduate Faculty, must have grades of B- or better, and must be at the 5000 level or above (4000 or above if taken in Arts & Sciences). For policies concerning academic probation, suspension, and provisional students, please refer to the Graduate School section of the UCB Bulletin.
• No courses numbered EDUC 3xxx or EDUC 4xxx may count toward a graduate degree in education.
• No course work to be applied toward an advanced degree may be taken pass/fail. A graduate student may not take any course at the 5000 level or above on a pass/fail basis.
• Course work to be applied to an advanced degree may not be taken for no credit.
• Normally no more than six hours of independent study may be included on a degree plan for the Ph.D. degree.

Time Limit
For the Ph.D. degree, students must complete all requirements for the degree within six years, including defending the dissertation and submitting it to the Graduate School. A one year extension may be granted if formally requested in writing, recommended by the advisor, and approved by the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and the Dean of the Graduate School. The extension request must show valid reasons as to why an extension is needed. If an extension is granted, all degree requirements must be completed within the extended time period.

General Course Distribution Requirements

All PhD students are required to take the following seven courses in their first year:

• Perspectives on Classrooms Teaching and Learning (EDUC 8210)
• Qualitative Research Methods I (EDUC 8250)
• Quantitative Research Methods I (EDUC 8230)
• Introduction to Educational Research and Social Policy (EDUC 8220)
• Qualitative Research Methods II (EDUC 8260)
• Quantitative Research Methods II (EDUC 8240)
• Specialty Seminar (EDUC 8xxx, program area dependent) – call graduate office for course number

Culture/Language Requirement
The culture/language requirement consists of two components: the Multiculturalism seminar (EDUC 8014) and a language component. The Multiculturalism seminar is scheduled every Fall semester, is a doctoral level course, and should be taken in the third semester of the student’s course sequence (second year-first semester). Introductory language courses (see item #1 below) are recorded on the Degree Plan form as having satisfied the language requirement but may not be listed as doctoral course work. To fulfill the language component one of three options is possible:

1. Satisfactory completion of two semesters’ worth of college level conversational language courses taken at an accredited institution within the three years preceding admission with a grade of C- or better. The conversational language requirement also can be met by:
1. Conversational courses offered through Continuing Education. If the courses are taken for no credit, the instructor must provide written documentation of second semester oral proficiency. Students should inform instructors before the start of the courses that such certification is sought.
2. Introductory Boulder campus courses such as SPAN 1010, ITAL 1010, FREN 1010, GRMN 1010, etc. These traditional courses meet the conversational requirement because instruction is conducted in the language and substantial language labs are part of the course expectations. Courses taken at another institution must be equivalent to the above courses to count towards this requirement.
3. Satisfactory performance on an oral proficiency examination indicating sufficient mastery to complete a second semester college course. (Given a specific request, arrangements can be made for such exams to be available through language department faculty or from Continuing Education instructors on a case-by-case basis.)
2. The BUENO Puebla experience or a similar experience (alternative experience to be approved by an EECD faculty member).
3. Course on "Language Issues in Educational Research".

Program Area Course Distribution Requirements
Each program area—Educational Equity and Cultural Diversity (EECD); Educational Foundations, Policy and Practice (EFPP); Educational/Psychological Studies (EPSY); Instruction and Curriculum in the Content Areas (ICCA); and Research and Evaluation Methodology (REME)—requires students to enroll in specialty seminars in their first year. Please consult your academic advisorfor remaining program area course requirements.

Full-Time Residency Requirements for Ph.D. Students
The School of Education has a residency requirement whereby Ph.D. students must spend at least two semesters as full-time students on campus; (one of these semesters must be during the first two years of doctoral study). Unlike the Graduate School’s residence requirement which only requires a certain number of semesters, the School of Education’s expectation is that students will not hold a full-time job during their two semesters of residence.

Scholarly Paper Requirement
In addition to course work requirements, doctoral students should be immersed in ongoing research with the faculty as early in their program as possible. All doctoral students in the School are required to complete, at a minimum, one scholarly paper prior to taking comprehensive examinations; other research endeavors prior to the dissertation are desirable. Each of the program committees has established criteria for implementing this requirement. Presentations at professional meetings and published articles, reviews, etc., are typical ways to satisfy the requirement.  Please have your advisor notify the graduate program assistant when this requirement has been met.

All students admitted to the Graduate School are required to maintain a minimum of a 3.00 grade point average each semester/term they are enrolled. For the Ph.D., a grade below B- is unsatisfactory and will not be counted toward fulfilling the minimum requirements for the degree. Because a B- is entered as a 2.70, any B- grades must be offset by grades of B+ or better to maintain an overall average of 3.0. A student who fails to do satisfactory work will be subject to probation or suspension from the Graduate School. Appeal of suspension may be made to the Graduate School, whose decision will be final.

Doctoral students are expected to make regular, steady progress toward their degree. The advisor and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies will conduct evaluations of students’ work each year to assist students in selecting appropriate courses, and to ensure that a student is moving steadily toward satisfying requirements. Grades in language courses partially fulfilling the Ph.D. foreign language requirement, in courses transferred from other institutions for the degree, and in courses taken as a special student at the University of Colorado are not included by the Graduate School in calculating the GPA.

Upon recommendation of the advisor and approval by the Associate Dean of the Graduate School, a student may repeat a class (only once) in which a grade of C, D, or F was received. The new grade will substitute for the old in the computation of the grade point average by the Graduate School; however, all grades appear on the transcript.

Graduate students are expected to make regular, steady progress toward their degree.  The advisor and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies will conduct evaluations of students’ work each year to assist students in selecting appropriate courses and independent studies, and to ensure that a student is moving steadily toward his/her educational goals.

Upon recommendation of the advisor and approval by the Associate Dean of the Graduate School, a student may repeat a class (only once) in which a grade of C, D, or F was received.  The new grade will substitute for the old in the computation of the grade point average by the Graduate School; however, all grades appear on the transcript

• Advising & Degree Plans
• Comprehensive Exams
• Dissertation
• Doctoral Progress Checklist
• Procedures & Forms
• Financial Aid
• Resources
• Graduate Student Handbook (PDF)