Last modified: 03.15.07

Program Requirements

The Regulations for Students set out in detail the policies and standards that the Graduate Group has adopted to govern the doctoral program in City and Regional Planning.

After entering the Ph.D. Program, each student progresses through three stages: Coursework, Preliminary Examination, and Dissertation.

COURSEWORK

The faculty expects coursework to be completed within two to four semesters for full-time students, depending upon the number of transfer credits transfer the Graduate Group Chair (GGC) authorizes for prior graduate-level course work.

The University requires twenty (20) course units for the Ph.D. degree. The University allows a maximum transfer of eight (8) course units; twelve (12), if the student’s prior graduate work is from the University. The majority of students in the Program who have completed relevant graduate work before entering the Program receive between four and eight course units of transfer credit.

University regulations allow a maximum of seven years to complete all requirements for admission to candidacy for the degree. These comprise coursework and the Preliminary Examination (written and oral), which include preparation and acceptance of the dissertation proposal. If the student has received credit for eight or more course units by transfer, then the time limit is reduced to five years. These regulations apply to all students, both full and part-time.

In the term following the completion of coursework (20 credit units), a student is required to register for Dissertation Status. Thereafter, registration in dissertation will occur automatically. Students must complete their Dissertation (including deposit of the Dissertation) within five years of being registered on Dissertation Status. If this deadline is not met, then they must retake, and pass, an updated Preliminary Examination.

The Graduate Group in City and Regional Planning does not (and has not ever had) a formal list of required courses. The principal reason for this has been the great diversity of backgrounds and intended dissertation research areas of the entering students. Those basic subject areas in which a general competence is required are sometimes covered by an entering student’s previous graduate work and are credited towards the Ph.D. degree by transfer of course units.

There are specific requirements that students must meet prior to beginning the Preliminary Examination. Students are expected to deal with these requirements as a top priority during their Coursework semesters, and they should plan out their program of coursework, notwithstanding the fact that specific courses may change as the student refines his or her research interests.

A. CPLN 772: Doctoral Seminar
This scholar-oriented seminar in research strategy explores how academic researchers define interesting and fertile research questions and then craft research plans. It is designed for students who are in the early stages of thinking about a dissertation topic as well as those working through research plans and writing a prospectus. The seminar serves as an introduction to the general issues of academic research in the field of City and Regional Planning and places particular emphasis on issues associated with interdisciplinary research. It addresses a number of issues not covered in the two specialized methodological courses PhD students are required to complete; these topics include finding and using primary source material, the use of case studies, and writing and data presentation. The seminar is required of all first-year CPLN doctoral students; other School of Design PhD students working on course requirements are invited to take the seminar.

B. Research Methods
Students must take and pass with a grade of B or better two (2) graduate-level methods courses appropriate for the student’s proposed field of research. These courses must be approved by the GGC and should correspond to the student’s intended “disciplinary” examination area. The Graduate Group maintains a pre-approved list of courses in quantitative and qualitative methods and spatial analytics offered in various schools of the University.

Students are encouraged to devote considerable time to developing skills in research methodology as preparation for an academic career. Although this requirement might possibly be met by waiver examination or prior coursework, a student will need to present evidence of strong and sufficient methodology training before the GGC is likely to approve either of these possibilities. In either case, a student must receive prior written approval from the GGC.

All students are expected to be proficient in the use of the computer and all software programs needed for their coursework and dissertation research.

C. Writing Requirement
The Ph.D. writing requirement comprises two elements:

1) Doctoral Seminar paper in the field of the student’s primary interest, to be completed by end of first year.

Students begin work on this requirement during their first matriculated semester in CPLN 772, which address how to define a researchable question and devise a research design. During their second semester, they should register for an independent study course with a faculty advisor, who, along with the GGC, will provide support as the student works to complete the paper. The Doctoral Seminar paper must be submitted to the GGC, who will approve or reject the paper after review with the Graduate Group. Failure to satisfactorily meet this requirement will jeopardize the student’s ability to move ahead in the Program.

2) Second-Year paper containing original research in an area of interest to the student, publishable quality (target); to be presented at Doctoral Seminar at start of third year.

This paper might (ideally could) evolve from the doctoral seminar paper. Students can work on this requirement in a number of different ways, for example, through an independent study course or through an RA position with a faculty member who is a prospective member of a student’s Examination and/or Dissertation Committee. Given the significance of the requirement, students are advised to work with their advisor well in advance to set up a plan of action. Failure to satisfactorily meet this requirement will jeopardize the student’s ability to move ahead in the Program.

The Graduate Group seeks to cultivate strong mentoring relationships between students and their faculty advisors and to properly prepare students for an academic career. Toward that goal, students are required to gain experience as a research assistant (RA) and teaching assistant (TA) and learn how to present the results of their research to an academic audience.

As preparation for an academic career, students are expected to submit their second-year paper for presentation at an academic conference during the fall of their third year of study.

A sensible way to proceed through coursework towards a dissertation is for a student to begin to identify faculty and courses with relevance to his or her dissertation interests shortly after starting coursework. Upon entering the Program, a student should make a draft plan of coursework and review this plan with the GGC. While taking these courses, students should discuss examination fields and dissertation topics with faculty. Students tend to benefit from situations in which there is considerable overlap of faculty on the Examination and Dissertation Committees. In short, a student should begin planning his or her Program of study and focusing on a dissertation focus upon matriculation in the Program.

PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION

A student must form two committees: the Examination Committee and the Dissertation Committee.

The Examination Committee is to have three faculty members. At least two members of the Examination Committee must be members of the Graduate Group in City and Regional Planning, and the third, if not a member of the Graduate Group, must be a member of the University Faculty. The student should have taken at least one formal course or Independent Study with each of the Examination Committee members.

The Dissertation Committee is to have three faculty members. The Dissertation Supervisor must have been a member of the Examination Committee and be a member of the Graduate Group. At least two members of the Examination Committee must be members of the Dissertation Committee. At least two members of the Dissertation Committee must the members of the Graduate Group.

For the first substantive requirement in the Preliminary examination, the student must demonstrate, both orally and in writing, mastery of major issues in three broad areas of inquiry and knowledge:

1) Planning theory and history;
2) A disciplinary field from which the student expects to draw his or her theoretical and methodological perspective: economics (urban and/or regional), history, politics/political economy, sociology, spatial analytics, or urban design; and
3) A field of planning directly related to the student’s proposed dissertation area: community development, economic development, environmental planning/studies, housing, land use and growth management, physical planning, transportation, or urban development.

The examination, no matter what its form, will ask the student to demonstrate an ability to 1) describe and assess the literature of the field, 2) deal critically with major issues, and 3) conceptualize and organize research.

DISSERTATION:

In the term following the completion of coursework (20 credit units), a student is required to register for Dissertation Statues. Students must complete their Dissertation within five years of being registered on Dissertation Status. If this deadline is not met, then they must retake, and pass, an updated Preliminary Examination.

In the semester during which a student expects to graduate, the Dissertation Committee holds an oral Final Examination of a student’s dissertation. This examination must be passed at least one month prior to that semester’s University deadline date for submitting the Acceptance of Dissertation form.

Also during this final semester, the prospective Ph.D. graduate makes a presentation of his or her dissertation research at a “Colloquium” sponsored by the Graduate Group. The Colloquium is open to all faculty in the School of Design as well as students at large who may wish to attend. Other students in the Ph.D. Program are strongly urged to attend and to treat the event as a primary opportunity for dissemination and discussion of research work. For the graduating student, the Colloquium also serves as a practice “job talk.”

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