2015-2016 Bulletin 
    
    Mar 28, 2024  
2015-2016 Bulletin [ARCHIVED BULLETIN]

Doctoral Degrees


Academic Fields

Admission to CGU doctoral programs requires a formal application and approval of the field faculty and dean. This requirement extends to students completing a master’s degree at CGU.

Doctor of Church Music Degree.  The Doctor of Church Music  combines excellence in church music performance with a theological background. The degree requirements are generally those of the doctoral degree, with the exceptions noted in the specific program section.

Doctor of Musical Arts Degree.  The Doctor of Musical Arts  degree indicates significant achievement in performance or composition. In general, the degree requirements are the same as those given for the doctoral degree, with the exceptions noted in the specific program section.

Doctor of Philosophy Degree.  The Doctor of Philosophy degree is offered in the following fields. 

Botany
Computational Science
Computational and Systems Biology
Cultural Studies
Economics
Education
Engineering and Industrial Applied Mathematics
English
Financial Engineering
  History
Information Systems and Technology
Management
Mathematics
Musicology
Philosophy
Political Science
Psychology
Religion

Joint Doctoral Degrees.  Joint doctoral degrees are also offered through collaborations with other institutions of higher education.

Computational Science
Education
Engineering & Industrial Applied Mathematics

Specific information regarding degree requirements for each program is available in the section for the individual program.  Refer to the program listing in the Academic Programs  section of the Bulletin.

Unit Requirements

Generally, a minimum of 72 units of coursework is required for the doctoral degree.

Time to Degree

Degree requirements for the doctoral degree program must be completed within seven years from the semester in which the student was admitted to the program.  This time period is adjusted when transfer credit is accepted toward the degree.

  • Reduced by 6 months if 12 units or less of transfer credit is accepted
  • Reduced by 12 months if 13 or more units of transfer credit is accepted

Time to degree may be extended by submitting an Extension of Time to Degree Request.  Procedures and forms are available on the registrar’s Time to Degree webpage.

Students must be enrolled continuously, either for credit or through Doctoral Study  (499), until the degree is earned.  For students who must still complete unit requirements, enrollment in Doctoral Research (495), Tutorial Reading (497), or Independent Study (498) is advised.  Grades for Dissertation Research are not required until the oral defense is passed and the dissertation is submitted.  No grades are issued for Doctoral Study.

Students who do not maintain a continuous student status with the University may be required to apply for readmission to resume their studies and/or to graduate. Time to degree is adjusted whenever a student is readmitted.  Please refer to the Readmission section for procedures.

Residency Requirement

The residency requirement ensures that students who graduate from CGU have been fully enriched by the program characteristics and faculty interactions that distinguish their degrees as CGU degrees.

The doctoral degree residency requirement may be met by either two semesters of full-time study in a 2-year period or by the completion of 48 units of coursework within a 3-year period, including work in the summer sessions. Enrollment in Dissertation Research (495) and Doctoral Study (499) do not satisfy the residency requirement.

Students who receive transfer credit meet the residency requirement in one of the following ways.

  • If 12 units or less of transfer credit is approved, by completing two full-time semesters of coursework within a 2-year period or by completing 36 units within a 2-1/2-year period
  • If 13 to 24 units of transfer credit is approved, by completing 24 units within a 2-year period

Students who are admitted to a doctoral program after completing a CGU master’s degree are subject to the same regulations on time to degree and residency as students who enter CGU after completing a master’s degree at another institution. Units earned in a CGU master’s program generally count toward the unit requirement for a doctoral degree in the same field. Because coursework requirements differ from field to field, not all CGU master’s units may count toward doctoral degree requirements.  Students should consult their doctoral faculty advisors.

Transfer Credit

Refer to the Registration section on Transfer credit  for qualifications and limitations specific to master’s degrees.  Other guidelines, procedures, and the form are available on the registrar’s Transfer Credit webpage.

Transdisciplinary Course Requirement 

Transdisciplinary courses are advanced intensive classes that prepares doctoral students for high-level discourse, research, and inquiry while also providing practical experience collaborating with colleagues from different fields.

Doctoral students admitted or readmitted in Fall 2004 or later, are required to complete a Transdisciplinary course (T-Course) preferably before the end of their second year of doctoral coursework.

To fulfill this requirement, students must enroll in a CGU course section headed by the prefix TNDY and successfully complete the 4-unit course (or two 2-unit TNDY courses). Transfer units may not be used to meet this requrement.

The course will count as 4 units towards the doctoral degree requirement. It will not add any additional units to the student’s degree requirements nor count against the total number of transfer units from previous graduate coursework.

The Transdisciplinary course requirement does not apply to students enrolled in master degree programs, in the doctoral programs in Botany, or in the joint doctoral programs with CSU Long Beach, San Diego State University, and Keck Graduate Institute.

Degree Milestones

Specific degree program requirements are known as milestones.  Students must be enrolled in order for milestones to be accepted and recorded on the student’s official transcript.  Progress to degree in the successful and timely completion of degree milestones is governed by the University’s policy on satisfactory academic progress .

Guidelines and forms are available from the registrar’s Completion of Degree - Doctoral Students webpage.

Research Tools. Reading proficiency in two, approved foreign languages is normally required, except when the program faculty accept substitutions. Substitutions may include statistics, mathematics, computer programming, and others in selected fields. Students should consult their specific programs.  Guidelines and forms are available on the registrar’s Research Tools webpage.

Students who have fulfilled a research tool at another institution may petition their faculty to have these research tools accepted. An official transcript is required to substantiate that completion of the applicable coursework occurred within the last three years. Entering students should petition their academic programs as soon as possible after acceptance.

Prerequisites for Qualifying Examinations. Generally, the following requirements must be met before a student is permitted to take qualifying examinations.

  • Full graduate standing must be attained.
  • Requirements for research tools, outlined in the individual program sections, must be satisfied.
  • The student must have completed not less than two years of full-time graduate study, or 48 units, including transfer credit. Courses in which the student has received an Incomplete grade do not qualify toward the 48 units needed for eligibility.

Qualifying Examinations. When a student has completed all program requirements, the advisor and dean of the student’s program approve a committee to administer the qualifying examinations. Upon successful completion of the exam(s), the committee reports the results to the registrar’s office.  Guidelines and forms are available on the registrar’s Qualifying Exams webpage.

Students who fail to pass either written or oral examinations are permitted, on the recommendation of the student’s advisor and dean, to take a second examination after a stipulated period of time. This period must be no less than three months and no more than one calendar year after the first examination. If the results of the second examination are unsatisfactory, no further examinations are permitted, except upon recommendation of the graduate faculty in the field concerned and with the approval of the provost and vice provost for enrollment management and student services.

Degree Milestones - Dissertation Process

Expanded informion, guidelines, and forms for the dissertation process are available from the registrar’s Completion of Degree - Doctoral Students webpages.

Dissertation Committee.  Each dissertation committee consists of at least three members drawn from the core CGU faculty or The Claremont Colleges extended faculty, on the condition that at least one committee member be a core CGU faculty member from the candidate’s department. CGU encourages the inclusion of an external expert, or experts, on the committee. This outside examiner or reader is in addition to the three members required for the committee. The outside examiner may be a faculty member from another institution or a qualified practitioner from the student’s field of study. If approved by the department, the outside examiner may vote in the committee’s proceedings and may be offered an honorarium. All dissertation committees are approved by the dean of the school. Exceptions to the make-up of a particular committee require the approval of the provost.

The membership of a student’s dissertation committee, including changes as they become necessary, must be reported to the registrar’s office.  Guidelines are forms are available on the registrar’s Dissertation/Theses Committee webpage.

Advancement to Candidacy. Advancement to candidacy for the doctoral degree occurs when the student’s dissertation proposal is accepted and approved by the student’s dissertation committee. A copy of the student’s proposal must be attached to the Advancement to Candidacy form filed with the registrar’s office. The dissertation proposal is a contract between the student and the committee detailing expectations and requirements of the dissertation. Changes to an approved dissertation proposal must be reported to the registrar’s office.  Guidelines and forms are available on the registrar’s Advancement to Candidacy webpage.

Dissertation Completion and Final Oral Examination. The dissertation must be completed within the seven-year period for completion of all doctoral degree requirements. The dissertation defense, sometimes referred to as the final oral examination, may not occur earlier than six months after approval of the student’s dissertation proposal. The defense should also take place within one month from submission of a dissertation to the committee for review. For students intending to graduate in a specific semester, the degree completion deadline announced in the Academic Calendar  applies.

Arrangements for a dissertation defense are made by agreement between the student and the dissertation committee. Students should allow a minimum of two weeks between the time of providing the final dissertation manuscript to committee members and the date for the dissertation defense. The dissertation defense is a public event announced to the University’s academic community by the registrar’s office. The student and department must submit a Request for Dissertation Defense Announcement to the registrar’s office to ensure a minimum of one week’s advance notice is provided to the CGU community.

A Degree Completion Status Form must be submitted to the registrar’s office to document the student’s successful defense and approval of the dissertation itself. If revisions are requested to the dissertation during a successful dissertation defense, a separate Degree Completion Status Form must be submitted to the registrar’s office when the revised dissertation has been reviewed and approved. All approval forms require the signatures of all members of the dissertation review committee, the dissertation chair, and the dean. Students may not graduate or receive their degrees until all of the required approvals have been received by the registrar’s office and the student has electronically submitted the final, approved version of the dissertation.

Guidelines and forms are available on the registrar’s Dissertation Defense and Approval webpage.

If a student fails to successfully complete a dissertation defense, the student may be permitted, upon the recommendation of the graduate faculty in the field concerned, to take a second examination not less than three months and no more than one calendar year after the first examination. If the second defense is failed, no further attempts are permitted.

Publication of the Dissertation

Upon completion of a successful dissertation defense and before a degree is awarded, the student must submit the final, approved dissertation to the registrar’s office. Submission must be made by the degree completion deadline announced in the Academic Calendar . Failure to meet the degree completion deadline may result in delays to the student’s degree conferral term.  Guidelines and procedures are detailed on the registrar’s Dissertation Formatting & Submission webpage.

Electronic submissions are encouraged to expedite publication of the manuscript and to avoid publication and binding costs for the student. Student authors should create an author account at the ProQuest/UMI gateway provided to CGU students for this purpose. Submission guidelines are provided on the registrar’s Completion of Degree - Doctoral Students webpages.

The student’s 350-word abstract is published in Dissertation Abstracts. Unless a student author specifies an embargo, dissertations are widely available upon publication through electronic library resources. If desired, hard copies of dissertations may be ordered through the ProQuest/UMI gateway.

If electronic submissions are not possible, paper dissertations may be submitted to the registrar’s office following the procedures outlined on the registrar’s Completion of Degree - Doctoral Students web pages. Note that publication and binding fees, which are waived for electronic submissions, are required for paper submissions.

Scholarship@Claremont. Student authors should consider being included in the academic publication library of Claremont Graduate University at The Claremont Colleges Library. Known collectively as Scholarship@Claremont, the repository provides global visibility for the student author as well as a variety of tracking services. Interested students are urged to contact the Scholarship@Claremont office prior to graduation to arrange for services.  Guidelines are available on the registrar’s Your Published Dissertation webpage.