PH.D. PROGRAM OVERVIEW
The
main objective of doctoral education at Berkeley is to inspire independence
and originality of thought in pursuit of knowledge. The School's
Ph.D. program aims to develop scholars who will make significant contributions
to the field of social welfare through excellent teaching,
research, policy development/analysis, administration, and direct
practice. Doctoral students become proficient in research methodology
and ultimately demonstrate this research competence in their dissertations.
The Ph.D. program allows students to pursue individualized courses of
study tailored to their intellectual interests.
You are encouraged to develop, in consultation with faculty, a program
of course work and independent tutorials centering on the three fields
of study you select for the qualifying examination and the research
you address in your dissertation. There is no total unit requirement
for the Ph.D. degree, but you must enroll full-time for at least your
first two years (three years for combined MSW/Ph.D. students). A full-time
program is 12 academic units each semester unless you are appointed
a Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) or a Graduate Student Instructor
(GSI), in which case the full-time program is 8 academic units
in addition to the units earned for GSR/GSI work.
Other
degree requirements are: (1) satisfactory completion of required courses;
(2) three research papers and accompanying field bibliographies in their
separate fields of study (see Attachment
III); (3) satisfactory completion of a dissertation prospectus;
(4) completion of the qualifying examination, which marks your eligibility
for advancement to candidacy for the degree; and (5) completion of the
dissertation. Because there is no unit requirement, the time you take
to obtain the Ph.D. degree will vary according to your previous preparation,
your progress in the program, and the nature of your dissertation research.
A minimum of three years is necessary to complete the program
(two years of full-time course work and one year for the dissertation)
although most students require a longer period. Recently, the median
time has been 4.5 years.
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