Degree Requirements

The Ph.D. requires at least 60 credit hours beyond the master's degree. The 60 or more hours must be in a planned course of study approved and overseen by the student's advisor and advisory committee. The student's planned program will often contain more than the minimum 60 hours.

Students with a master's degree in another discipline may be required to complete additional graduate course work in specific areas of communication deemed necessary by the student's advisor and advisory committee. Graduate work taken beyond the master's degree may be judged applicable by the advisory committee, but post-master's graduate credits beyond nine semester hours will not count toward the 60-hour minimum required for the Ph.D.

Students are strongly encouraged to take all of the Summer Scholars courses and are required to take at least two.

To complete the program, students must demonstrate:

• A thorough grasp of perspectives on the nature of communication as an applied science and the process of theory construction and testing
  
  
• A broad knowledge of theories and research in various applied communication contexts
  
  
• In-depth knowledge of the communication context chosen as the student's area of specialization
  
  
• Competence in a cognate field which supports the student's area of specialization
  
  
• A broad knowledge of various communication research methods and statistical procedures, with expertise in either qualitative or quantitative methodologies

Course Requirements

Minimum of 30 credit hours in didactic courses, to include:

Core Courses (12 credits)

• COMM 700 - Introduction to Graduate Studies and Research in Communication
• COMM 711 - Communication Theory
• COMM 705 - Advanced Communication Theory
• COMM 701 - Action Research in Communication

Major Concentration (at least 20 credits)

• Minimum of 15 credit hours in the departmental 700-789 courses
• Minimum of 6 credit hours at the 700-789 level in a cognate area outside the department

Research Courses (at least 15 credits)

• Minimum of 12 credit hours of didactic research courses
• Maximum of 9 credit hours of independent study conducting research

Dissertation (at least 15 credit hours)

Length of Program

To complete the Ph. D. program in four years, students need to take complete 15 credit hours per year. To complete in three years, students need to complete 20 credit hours per year. Students may take fewer credit hours per year, which will extend their doctoral study to five years or more.

General Procedures for the Ph.D. Program

Termination Policy

A review committee constituted from among the department's graduate faculty will review the progress of each student in the Ph.D. program as they reach certain credit-completion benchmarks, and semi-annually. The committee may recommend to the department's graduate faculty the termination of any student's program. The graduate faculty may then recommend termination to the graduate school. Such recommendation will be made only after consultation with the student's major advisor and advisory committee, and follow only if ratified by a two-thirds vote of the graduate faculty.