Doctoral Degree Requirements

Doctoral Minor

Doctoral minors consist of a minimum of 15 semester hours of course work in a discipline different from the doctoral program. Any school with at least one approved graduate degree program (master’s, specialist, or doctorate) is eligible to offer doctoral minor(s). With school and college approval to offer the doctoral minor the proposal is submitted through the university curriculum approval process. Upon approval, the doctoral minor will be listed in the university catalog.

Graduate students admitted to doctoral programs may, upon approval of their doctoral program advisor, select a minor program of study for inclusion in their doctoral program. Completion of the doctoral minor will be indicated on the student’s transcript. Doctoral students who have been approved by the school to pursue a doctoral minor will include the requirements for completion of the minor in their doctoral plan of study.

The credit hours associated with an approved doctoral minor would count toward the total doctoral degree program hours required only when they overlap with electives or research core requirements. No course would be allowed to count for double credit hours. Student would not be allowed to pursue a minor offered under the same program name as the doctoral program to which they are admitted. To complete a minor, the student must first be officially admitted to a doctoral degree program.

Second Doctorate Guidelines

Double majors are not permitted at the doctoral level. A student may receive a second doctoral degree from UNC provided that the requirements for the first doctoral degree have been completed before initiating the second degree program and provided that no course work from the first degree is counted toward the second degree.

Courses and Credit Hours

Credit Hours

A student entering a doctoral program who possesses a master's degree must earn a minimum of 64 semester hours of graduate credit beyond the master's degree. This includes a minimum of 48 semester hours of graduate level discipline content courses and 16 semester hours of research credit.

A student who possesses only a baccalaureate degree must earn a minimum of 94 semester hours of graduate credit beyond the baccalaureate degree. This includes a minimum of 78 semester hours of graduate level discipline content courses and 16 semester hours of research credit.

A student who possesses a master's degree but who is attempting to obtain a second master's degree enroute to a doctoral degree must meet the same credit hour requirements as the baccalaureate only student.

A student who possesses a specialist degree may count a maximum of 21 semester hours of specialist work in the doctoral program with the approval of the Graduate School, the program advisor, and all members of the doctoral committee. Schools may have requirements that exceed the minimums established by the university.

Transfer Credit

Doctoral students must complete a minimum of 40 semester hours through UNC of the 64 minimum required for a doctoral degree. If the program requirements exceed the 64 credit minimum, students are allowed to transfer additional credits, as determined by their advisor, from another accredited institution that grants doctoral degrees. Doctoral students without a master's degree must complete 64 of the 94 required credits at UNC for a doctoral degree. The plan of study will indicate transfer credits to be included in a student's program. Students are encouraged to check school policies regarding transfer of credit.

These policies allow programs that exceed the 64 credit minimum for a doctoral degree to establish school transfer limits and guidelines that exceed minimums. As long as the minimum number of credits through UNC are observed, transfer credit allowances to students will be determined by program faculty and can vary on a case by case basis. The Graduate School will not approve students for graduation with fewer than the required UNC credits.

Doctoral Committee

Each doctoral student must have an Advisor and a doctoral committee appointed before the written comprehensive exam is taken. The appointment of the Doctoral Committee shall occur prior to the scheduled comprehensive examination.

At minimum, a doctoral committee must consist of:

a Research Advisor must be from within the program/discipline area; (and must hold Doctoral Research [DR] status);
one additional faculty Committee Member from within the program/discipline area;
one additional faculty Committee Member from within a related discipline or area of inquiry;
a Faculty Representative (needs to be outside the program discipline)

All committee members must have at least Graduate Faculty (GF) status. The Doctoral Committee is subject to the approval of the program advisor and the Graduate School.

The student and all members of the Doctoral Committee will receive confirmation of the approved committee assignments. Unless the student or Research Advisor informs the Graduate School or the Graduate School informs the student of the need for a change, the doctoral committee membership will remain the same from the written comprehensive examination throughout the dissertation research stages of the program.

The Graduate School will confirm that the student’s requested committee is appropriate as a doctoral research committee each time the graduate school receives the Request to Schedule of the Doctoral Examination to schedule oral comps and dissertation defense and when they turn in their dissertation proposal.

The student should nominate a faculty representative from outside the program discipline to serve on the committee. The final approval of the faculty representative is the responsibility of the Graduate Dean. The faculty representative is a full voting member with all the rights and responsibilities of any other member and must be present at the student’s doctoral oral examination and dissertation defense. The faculty member must hold graduate faculty status and should be in a different program/discipline area than that of the student’s program/discipline area. The faculty representative is expected to contribute conceptual, theoretical, methodological and/or academic expertise from an alternative disciplinary perspective.

No faculty member will be appointed to a doctoral committee without his/her consent. University faculty who have not been appointed Graduate Faculty or Doctoral Research status by the Graduate Council shall not be appointed as members of doctoral committees. An Honorary member is not required, but is allowed when an off campus faculty member with research expertise related to the study is requested. The Honorary committee member is a full voting member with all the rights and responsibilities of other members of the committee and must be present at the student’s doctoral oral examination and dissertation defense. If there is to be a difference in the doctoral committee structure for the oral comprehensive examination and the dissertation research, the student must submit a change of committee membership form to the Graduate School. If a committee member or faculty representative is unable to be present during an oral examination or defense, the program area shall appoint a replacement committee member who has been previously approved by the Graduate School. The Graduate School must be notified of the replacement before the exam or defense. If a replacement cannot be appointed prior to the examination or defense, the exam must be rescheduled for a future date. The concerns and recommendations of all committee members, including the faculty representative, are crucial to the dissertation approval process.

Faculty Committee Load Policy

An individual graduate faculty member may serve on ten active doctoral research committees at any one time and may serve as the dissertation director or research advisor for no more than five of these ten committees. Exceptions to the committee maximums may be permitted only if agreed to by the graduate faculty member, school director and college dean as follows:

The faculty member involved agrees that his or her load (current or projected) allows adequate time to take on an additional student without adversely affecting the responsibility of the school to other students and to programs offered by the school.
The school director approves the additional student. Approval indicates that the director has reviewed the current load of the faculty member and does not feel the additional load will adversely affect the responsibility of the school to other students and to programs offered by the school.
The Graduate Dean has approved the exception(s).

An individual school may elect to impose more stringent limitations on its faculty with respect to the number of committees on which they may serve. "Active doctoral student" is defined as one who is currently enrolled.

Plan of Study

At least three faculty, appointed and approved by the major program/school, shall supervise the planning of a student’s doctoral degree program. In conjunction with the appointed faculty, each doctoral student must prepare a long-range plan of study that clearly specifies core requirements, elective, transfer, double-numbered coursework, and if applicable, research tools and doctoral minor.

The plan must be formalized on the completed Plan of Study form http://www.unco.edu/grad/forms/pdfs/PlanOfStudy.pdf, including the signatures of the program advisor or appointed faculty (if required by the school). The Plan of Study must be filed with the Graduate School by the end of the student’s first semester of enrollment after admission.

Upon receipt of a properly signed Plan of Study form, the Dean of the Graduate School or his/her designee shall review the plan and approve or disapprove the plan. If approved, the Plan of Study form will filed in the student’s folder and electronically archived. If approved, the Plan of Study will be the basis for the graduation check. Any deviation from the plan of student must be approved by the program advisor and the Dean of the Graduate School or his/her designee.

Changes to the Plan of Study must be approved by the advisor and submitted in writing to the Graduate School with copies sent to all appointed faculty.

Comprehensive Examinations: Written

All examinations and the defense of the dissertation must be scheduled with the approval of all committee members. They may not be performed on weekends or when the University offices are closed for holidays.

Each doctoral student must pass a written comprehensive examination that is designed, administered, and evaluated by the graduate faculty of the major school and by other qualified individuals as specified by the program advisor. This examination may not be taken until the student has:

been granted regular admission to the degree program;
filed an approved plan of study;
completed at least 36 semester hours (60 semester hours if baccalaureate only student) of work applicable toward the degree -- at least 24 semester hours must be UNC credit;
maintained a grade point average of at least 3.00 in his/her graduate degree program;
had a doctoral committee appointed by the Graduate School;
obtained approval from the program advisor to take the exam.

The major school is responsible for scheduling the date, time, and place of the examination(s). Each student must check the school requirements at the beginning of his/her program.

Once the comprehensive examination session begins, it is considered a take of the examination. If the student leaves the examination session and does not return, the examination will be considered taken and the exam will be evaluated accordingly.

Once the examination has been evaluated, the program advisor must submit a signed report form to the Graduate School indicating a pass or failure of the examination.

The results of the comprehensive examinations, proposals and defenses must be reported to the Graduate School no later than the semester following the examination or defense or the Graduate School may require a repeat of the examination.

A retake may not be scheduled during the same semester that the original examination was completed. Failure of the retake of the examination or its equivalent will result in the termination of the student's degree program.

Comprehensive Examinations: Oral

After passing the written comprehensive examination, every doctoral student must take and pass an oral comprehensive examination. The program advisor, who shall serve as chairperson of the oral comprehensive examination committee, should direct the student to arrange the date, time and place of the oral examination with all committee members . After all arrangements are made, the student or program advisor will notify the Graduate School by forwarding a signed and completed Request to Schedule a Doctoral Examination form.

In order for the Graduate School to approve a request for the student to take the examination, the following conditions must be met:

The committee members and faculty representative must be the same as those approved by the Graduate School.
The written comprehensive examination results must have been received and recorded by the Graduate School prior to requesting to schedule the oral comprehensive examination.
Annual progress review from program on file for each year prior to student scheduling their oral exam.
The Request to Schedule a Doctoral Examination must be turned in to the Graduate School at least two weeks (14 calendar days) before the requested date of the examination to allow for any problems to be addressed.

The student is responsible for confirming the date and time of the examination with all of their committee members. The Graduate School will approve and publicize the examination date, time and place in the UNC Today or in any other appropriate university publication and forward a Results of the Oral Comprehensive Exam to the student’s Program Advisor.

Any examination which is not scheduled in advance through the Graduate School will not be recognized as valid and must be rescheduled.

All committee members and the faculty representative must be present at the examination or a substitute assuaged according to the guidelines for Doctoral Committee. The student’s performances on the examination will be evaluated as:

pass;
will pass when conditions are met (conditions must be recorded on the Results of the Oral Comprehensive Examination form before turning in to the Graduate School; or,
fail, with option to retake permitted or retake not permitted-program terminating specified on the Results of the Oral Comprehensive Examination form before turning in to the Graduate School.

At least three-fourths of the committee members must agree on the final evaluation.

All members of the UNC faculty are invited to attend and may ask questions of the student after the committee members finish their questioning. Other graduate students may also attend with permission from the chairperson of the committee.

Progress Review

Schools are to evaluate and provide an annual program progress report for each doctoral student until the student passes the oral comprehensive examination.

Doctoral student advisors will be responsible for obtaining and reporting at least the following information for each assigned advisee:

Student’s self evaluations of their academic performance and professional development,
Student’s grades in all graduate courses during the evaluation period,
Performance ratings from instructors for all graduate courses during the evaluation period,
Assessment of the student’s professional development from appropriate school faculty. Based on the data collected, each doctoral advisor will meet with each student’s doctoral committee to develop and provide a summary of the student’s strengths and area(s) for improvement. Emphasis should be placed on acknowledging accomplishments and professional growth where appropriate.

Recommendations for improvement should include specific changes expected in the student’s performance or behavior, means of assessing the changes, and the time period by which the change is expected to occur. Improvements or lack of change in areas recommended from prior progress reports should be documented. Signatures of the advisor and all committee members are required on the progress report.

The progress report will include a clear recommendation to the chair of the program/school Graduate Program Committee (GPC) of whether the student is to be continued each year without conditions, continued with conditions, or not supported for continuation. If conditions for improvement are stipulated, the student must be informed by the Graduate Program Committee (GPC), in writing, of the conditions and specific changes required to satisfy the conditions. If the school does not have a GPC, the report will be submitted directly to the director of the school.

The following procedures must be followed prior to submitting a recommendation to discontinue a doctoral student’s program for causes other than poor academic performance:

The student must be informed of the pattern of behavior or incident(s) that has given rise to concern among the school faculty members and that led to the recommendation for program discontinuation.
The student must be given an opportunity to meet with and address the observed behavior or incident with the school Graduate Program Committee (GPC) or with the student’s doctoral committee for schools with no graduate program committee. Following the meeting, the GPC or doctoral committee must either reassert the concerns or withdraw the concerns in writing to the school director.

If the complaint arises from an unprofessional behavior or other behavioral concerns, the student will be given a clearly defined probationary period during which clear behavioral objectives are provided to either rectify the concerns or change the behavior. Clear means of assessing improvement will be provided.

If the complaint results from an egregious violation of laws or published university or school policy, rules or professional ethics, clear documented evidence of the incident(s) must be provided with the recommendation.

Copies of the progress report are to be provided by the GPC or student doctoral committee to the school director/division director no later than April 15 of each year and copied to the student. A director/division director may agree or disagree with the GPC’s or doctoral committee recommendation. If in agreement with the recommendation, the director/division director will approve and submit the progress report to the Dean of the Graduate School and a copy to the college dean by May 1. The student and GPC or doctoral committee will be informed in writing of the approval. If in disagreement with the GPC’s or doctoral committee’s recommendation, the school director will invite the student’s program advisor and the GPC chair or doctoral committee members to discuss the disagreement. After the meeting, the GPC chair or student’s doctoral advisor will approve and submit the original progress report recommendation to the Graduate Dean with a copy to the college dean and student.

Modify and submit the recommendation to include conditions agreed to by the school director/division director and GPC or doctoral committee (or add conditions) to the Graduate Dean with a copy to the college dean and student.

Change and submit the recommendation as agreed to by the school director/division director and GPC or doctoral committee with explanation any additional documentation and signed acknowledgement from the school director/division director and GPC chair or doctoral committee members. The advisor and GPC members or doctoral committee members may submit additional comments or documentation to support the GPC chair’s decision or to express opposition to the chair’s decision. The changed recommendation will then be submitted to the Dean of the Graduate School with a copy to the college dean and student.

Research Proposal and Dissertation

The student should confirm the composition of the doctoral committee prior to registering for any 797 (proposal) hours. The same doctoral committee will serve as the oral comprehensive examination committee and research committee unless a change is deemed necessary as explained in Doctoral Committee section.

A dissertation proposal and final dissertation should be developed pertaining to a significant topic in the candidate’s major and is required of all doctoral students. Minimum credit for the dissertation proposal (797) is 4 semester hours, and for the final dissertation (799) is 12 semester hours.

The dissertation proposal should be presented to the student’s doctoral committee and the Graduate School for approval prior to engaging in final data collection. Preliminary data collection prior to approval of the proposal is acceptable only as far as it is necessary for developing appropriate skills and methods of research. All 797 (proposal) and 799 (dissertation) hours will result in a grade of "NR" until the final product of each has been approved by the Graduate School. Once the proposal and final dissertation have been approved by the doctoral committee and the Graduate School, the Graduate School will authorize the Registrar to change all prior grades to "S".

The dissertation proposal is crucial in the dissertation process and should culminate with a formal and public dissertation proposal hearing. The proposal shall be presented to the student's entire committee in a timely manner. Students coordinate with their research advisor to schedule the proposal hearing. The student is responsible for scheduling the dates, time and location of the proposal hearing. The faculty representative must be present at both, the proposal hearing and the final dissertation defense. Approval of the dissertation proposal establishes the expectations for the final dissertation and assures agreement among the committee with the student’s methods and research strategy prior to proceeding to the final stages of the dissertation (including securing IRB approval prior to data collection). The proposal hearing also allows the committee to introduce required changes or additions to a student’s proposed project while changes are still possible. Scheduling the defense hearing is done with the program office according to the major school policies.

After the proposal hearing, the proposal is to be revised according to committee requirements. During the proposal hearing, committee members will direct questions to the student and point out concerns regarding the proposed project. It is a good idea for the student to take careful notes of all comments and concerns made and then review the notes with the committee before the hearing is over to insure that all the requested changes are included. It will be the student’s responsibility, in consultation with the research advisor, to address those concerns in a revised proposal. It is recommended that the student summarize the changes that have been incorporated into the revised proposal to assist the committee in identifying and locating the changes that have been made.

The revised proposal should then be circulated with a signature page to the committee for review and signature if they approve of the revisions. A second committee meeting is optional but could be required by the committee due to the extensive nature of the expected changes or to expedite the approval process. All committee members’ signatures are required.

Filing Proposal. An electronic copy of the approved proposal, signed signature page and signed non-plagiarism affirmation shall be submitted to the Graduate School. The student shall sign the non-plagiarism affirmation when the proposal is filed with the Graduate School Office. All doctoral students must submit a paper copy of the signature page with signatures of all committee members. Students must also assume responsibility for maintaining their own copy of the entire proposal in a secure location until the time of their graduation.

Electronic submission. Students should submit an electronic copy of the proposal narrative to the Graduate School. Doctoral students should be prepared to submit a paper copy at any time if requested to do so by the Graduate School or by a member of their committee.

Doctoral Candidacy. Doctoral students advance to candidacy upon passing the written and oral comprehensive examinations and filing an approved dissertation proposal in the Graduate School. Upon meeting all requirements of the Registrar’s Office is authorized to change all prior grades for 797 hours to "S".

The Graduate School will consider the proposal to be accepted unless the Graduate School Dean objects to the proposal. If the Dean objects, the proposal should be sent to the student and research advisor with specific written request for revisions. Students register for prefix 799, Doctoral Dissertation hours with the approval of their research advisor. Approval from the appropriate institutional review board (IRM for human subject research or IACUC for animal research) must be obtained prior to collecting data for the dissertation.

Graduation Check

Upon admission to doctoral candidacy, the Graduate School will conduct a preliminary graduation check. Any discrepancies between the transcript and the plan of study must be corrected with either a new plan of study or a correction memo initiated by the advisor. Upon receipt of the preliminary graduation check, the student must thereafter notify the Graduate School by completing an Application for Graduation at www.unco.edu/grad/forms/pdfs/DocApplicationForGraduation.pdf.

All graduating students are encouraged to attend graduation. Those students participating in the graduation ceremony are required to wear appropriate academic regalia. Diplomas are not issued at the graduation ceremony. All Graduate students must complete a Diploma Request Card at www.unco.edu/grad/forms/gradCard.asp. The diploma will be mailed to the address provided by the student on the Diploma Request Card . Failure to provide a current mailing address could result in a delay in receipt of the diploma. No diploma will be issued until all requirements for graduation have been met.

Hooding. The candidate's research advisor(s) shall hood the candidate at the graduation ceremony.

Dissertation Defense. The student will complete the research and write the dissertation in close collaboration with the research advisor(s). All students must follow the program and graduate school guidelines for writing the doctoral dissertation or Capstone Project. The Graduate School Dissertation Manual can be found at http://www.unco.edu/grad/forms/pdfs/DoctoralDissertationFormatManual.pdf and the Capstone Project Manual can be found at http://www.unco.edu/grad/forms/pdfs/CapstoneResearchProjectFormatManual.pdf. The student should discuss discipline specific formatting rules with their doctoral committee advisor.

Upon completion of the dissertation or capstone project, the program advisor should direct the student to arrange the date, time and place of the defense of the dissertation with all committee members . After all arrangements are made, the student or program advisor will notify the Graduate School by forwarding a signed and completed Request to Schedule a Doctoral Examination form found at www.unco.edu/grad/forms/pdfs/ScheduleDocExam.pdf.

In order for the Graduate School to approve a request for the student to defend the dissertation, the following conditions must be met:

The committee members and faculty representative must be the same as those approved by the Graduate School.
The written and oral comprehensive examination results must have been received and recorded by the Graduate School.
The student must have been admitted into candidacy at least one semester prior to requesting to defend the dissertation.
The Request to Schedule a Doctoral examination must be turned in to the Graduate School at least two weeks (14 calendar days) before the requested date of the defense to allow for any problems to be addressed.
The Defense of the Dissertation must be scheduled at least five weeks (35 calendar days) prior to the anticipated graduation date. If it is not, the student may not graduate until the following semester.

The student is responsible for confirming the date and time of the examination with all of the committee members. The Graduate School will approve and publicize the examination date, time and place in the UNC Today or in any other appropriate university publication two weeks prior to the scheduled date. The Graduate School forwards a Results of the Doctoral Dissertation form to the student’s Program Advisor as approval of the defense.

Any examination which is not scheduled in advance through the Graduate School will not be recognized as valid and must be retaken.

All committee members and the faculty representative must be present at the examination or a substitute assigned according to the guidelines for Doctoral Committee. All members of the graduate faculty may attend the defense and may ask questions of the student after the committee members finish their questioning. Other graduate students may attend with permission from the research advisor. The research advisor should discuss the nature and purpose of the dissertation defense with the student. Generally, the student is instructed to prepare a brief description of the entire study from the purpose to the results and discussion. The committee is free to ask any questions pertaining to the dissertation. The student is expected to understand all aspects of the study including the data analyses and theoretical implications and should avoid being unaware of the procedure or logic followed in the data analyses. The committee will expect the student to demonstrate himself/herself as an expert on the topic and thesis of the dissertation. It should be recommended that the student bring copies of the signature pages for the dissertation to the defense in the event that the committee evaluates the performance as pass. They can then sign the evaluation form and the signature pages. The dissertation committee will evaluate the student’s performance at the defense as well as the written dissertation as a "pass", "will pass with conditions", or "failed" on the Results of the Defense of Dissertation form.

Pass: If the student passes the defense, the research advisor shall obtain the signatures of the research committee members on the Results of Defense of Dissertation form, obtain the signatures of the committee members on the form, and submit the form to the Graduate School. The student shall proceed to make any corrections required by the research committee and submit the corrected dissertation to the committee members for their signatures. The student must provide all necessary copies of the signature page. Original signatures are required on every signature page.
Will Pass: If the research committee requires the student to meet stated conditions, the research advisor shall list the conditions on the Results of Defense of Dissertation form, obtain the signatures of the committee members on the form, and submit the form to the Graduate School. The list of conditions must include a statement regarding the number of additional defense meetings and the amount of additional time allowed by the research committee. The Results of Defense of Dissertation form shall be returned to the Graduate School until the conditions are met, or the committee deems student has not met the conditions. If the student subsequently satisfies the stated conditions the research advisor shall obtain the original Results of Defense of Dissertation form from the Graduate School. The student shall proceed to make any corrections required by the research committee and submit the corrected dissertation to the committee members for their signatures. If the student does not meet the stated conditions, the research advisor shall obtain the original Report of Defense of Dissertation form from the Graduate School, shall obtain signatures of the research committee members on the lower section of the form indicating that they do not approve, and resubmit the form to the Graduate School. The Graduate School shall then notify the student that the degree program is terminated.
Failed: If a student fails the defense, the research advisor shall obtain the signatures of the research committee members on the Results of Defense of Dissertation form and submit the form to the Graduate School. The Graduate School shall then notify the student that the degree program is terminated.

The results of comprehensive examinations, proposal and defenses must be reported to the Graduate School no later than the semester following the examination or defense or the Graduate School may require the examination to repeat the examination.

Dissertation and Capstone Filing. After completing any necessary revisions and successful approval of the dissertation by the student’s committee, an electronic copy of the final dissertation or capstone is to be submitted to the Graduate School with at least four (4) original signed signatures pages for an editorial review and final approval from the Dean of the Graduate School.

The student will then be asked to make revisions and/or submit the required copies of the final dissertation for the Dean of the Graduate School to sign. The dissertation is not approved until signed by the Dean of the Graduate School.

If the dissertation is not filed with the Graduate School at least four weeks (28 calendar days) before the student’s anticipated graduation date, the student may not graduate until the following semester.

Upon filing the dissertation, the Graduate School will require each doctoral student to complete specific forms relating to the dissertation and will bill the students’ UNC account for binding, mailing, microfilming, and publishing the dissertation. Final submission procedures and necessary forms can be found on the Graduate School website (http://www.unco.edu/grad/). The dissertation and capstone will be electronically stored and the abstract will be published in Dissertation Abstracts.

The four (4) required paper copies shall be dispensed as follows:

one copy of the dissertation shall be filed in the university archive,
one at the library circulation,
one copy for the student’s research advisor,
one copy will be sent to the student.

If a student has co-advisors, a fifth copy must be submitted to the Graduate School.

Dissertation Objection . If a dissertation is filed with all but one of the signatures of the research committee members, the Dean of the Graduate School or his/her designee will ask the non-signing member if he/she wishes to enter a formal objection(s). Should the committee member file an objection, the Dean of the Graduate School will appoint a review committee to assess the specific objection(s). If the review committee rules that the objection(s) does not justify the rejection of the study, the chairperson of the review committee will sign the dissertation in place of the dissenting faculty member. If the review committee rules that the objection(s) is valid, the student must take appropriate steps to modify the dissertation in order to gain the approval of the original dissertation committee.

Research Requirements

Research Core . Doctoral students must complete a research core of at least 12 semester hours of research courses or methods of inquiry designated as appropriate to the discipline and approved by the Graduate Council. Courses numbered XXX 622 (Directed Studies) shall not be used to substitute for courses in the research core.

The Graduate School will not waive this requirement but can approve appropriate substitute research courses or methods up to the full 12 semester hours. The program advisor must provide a written request to substitute an alternative course, a syllabus for each course, and rationale for the requested substitute(s) to the Graduate Dean.

Research Tools. All Ph.D. students must demonstrate competency in two acceptable research tools. A research tool is defined as exhibiting advanced knowledge and/or demonstrating a set of skills related to a specifiable technique or method that contributes to the student's ability to conduct doctoral level research in the discipline. Schools will determine acceptable research tools such as languages, applied statistics, mathematical statistics, and computer languages/applications.

Collateral Field. With the approval of the major school and the Dean of the Graduate School doctoral students may use a collateral field of study as a substitute for one of the research tools. A collateral field of at least 12 credit hours is defined as advanced and specialized or focused knowledge and competence within a specifiable content area or skill area from a related discipline that contributes to the student's ability to conduct doctoral level research in their major discipline (e.g., advanced cognitive theory) applications of distance education technology or multimedia technology to the classroom. The level of competency and the assessment of competency is established by each school and must be approved by the Dean of the Graduate School.

Means of evaluating the student's knowledge or skill must be included on the plan of study to indicate how each research tool requirement is to be satisfied. Acceptable evaluation of research tools might include examinations in academic courses, competency demonstrations evaluated by advisors and committee members, or alternative testing or competency demonstration procedures developed within the school or program.

Residence Requirement

Each student must complete at least two terms of full-time study in residence after having been admitted to the doctoral degree program. A term in residence is defined as an academic term during which a student completes nine or more credit hours of on-campus course work applicable to the doctoral degree. Non-scheduled courses (e.g., internships, externships, directed studies and doctoral research) will not be counted in the nine or more credit hours unless a student also completes at least six other credit hours of on-campus course work applicable to the doctoral degree.

Schools may request approval of alternative requirements. Proposals for alternative residency requirements must assure extensive immersion in discipline research or practice under close supervision of graduate faculty or field professionals approved for graduate faculty equivalent status. Further, alternative proposals should address how the requirements promote appropriate values and professional motivation of a doctoral student beyond the training or academic experience that the individual will receive. Approvals will be applicable only to the program(s) specified in the proposal. Proposals should be submitted as a program curriculum request in accordance with the current curriculum review process. Alternative proposals must be approved by Graduate Council and Graduate Dean prior to implementation for any individual student.

The purpose for this residency requirement is to encourage immersion of the doctoral student in the program of study, the school and the discipline. Part-time or sporadic participation in a doctoral program is discouraged. A residency requirement does not guarantee total focus on doctoral studies. It does extend the message that a doctoral program involves more than attending some classes and completing program requirements. It also includes refinement of professional values and developing the intrinsic motivation required to contribute to the discipline.

If a UNC or Aims Community College employee cannot meet the above prescribed residency requirement due to employment restrictions, he/she may satisfy the requirement by completing 20 or more credit hours of on-campus work applicable to the degree during consecutive, academic year terms. Such a student must receive written permission from his/her immediate supervisor and a recommendation from his/her major school to fulfill the residency requirements in this manner. The supervisor’s permission and the school's recommendation must be filed with the Graduate School.

Time Limit

The maximum time allowed for completion of a doctoral degree is eight calendar years beginning with the student's first semester of enrollment after admission has been granted.

However, if a student has approval to count work taken before first enrollment after admission, the student must complete the degree within eight calendar years beginning with the earliest work counted in the program.

If a student has completed a Specialist in Education degree at the time he/she begins a doctoral degree program and if the student is permitted to include 21 semester hours of his/her specialist degree credit in the doctoral program, the student shall have a maximum time limit of five calendar years to earn the doctoral degree.

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Program Requirements