Admission to the Graduate School of prospective doctoral candidates is
the joint responsibility of the Dean of Graduate Studies and Research and the head of
the program to which the student applies. Students must show sufficient and
satisfactory undergraduate preparation in the field or fields in which the doctoral
work is to be done. Students must also demonstrate superior ability to do advanced
work at the doctoral level.
Candidates for doctoral degrees are subject to all applicable academic and other
University regulations which govern candidates for the master’s degrees unless
otherwise indicated.
Advisory Committee and Degree Program
When a doctoral student is accepted into a program, the program’s dean, director, or
department chair appoints an academic advisor who is responsible for the student’s
program until an advisory committee is appointed. The name of the student’s advisor
will be included in the official letter of acceptance sent to the student by the
Graduate School. The student will develop a degree plan with the advisor. The degree
plan will be reviewed by a department committee which shall consist of not fewer than
three members of the graduate faculty, with two being from the major department. This
committee shall have authority to review the student’s course work and to evaluate it
through written and/or oral examinations with respect to the student’s program. The
student’s advisor chairs the advisory committee and administers this authority. When
a student presents a minor, a faculty member from the minor department must approve
the proposed program through signature on the degree plan. It is the student’s
responsibility to work with his/her advisor to develop the degree plan, which must be
forwarded through the department chair and the academic dean to the Dean of Graduate
Studies and Research before completion of eighteen semester hours.
Course Requirements
Specific requirements are determined by the student’s advisory committee,
department chair, and academic dean. In general, however, work leading to the
doctorate requires the completion of at least ninety graduate-level semester hours
beyond the baccalaureate degree. In some cases a student may need to complete more
than ninety semester hours in order to meet individual requirements determined by the
advisory committee. The completion of a number of hours, however, is not in itself
sufficient; the nature and quality of work are the major considerations.
Credit by Transfer
There is no automatic transfer of graduate credit, but the student’s advisory
committee has the prerogative to recommend to the Dean of Graduate Studies and
Research the acceptance of transferable credits.
Only work completed at accredited institutions may be considered for transfer.
A student may apply for consideration of transfer of credits after satisfactorily
completing a minimum of nine hours of graduate credit at Texas Woman’s University and
upon filing the degree program. The rule governing the time limit for doctoral work
also applies to transferable credits.
Only graduate courses in which a grade of B or better has been earned are
acceptable for transfer. No credit toward a graduate degree may be obtained by
correspondence; and no credit toward a graduate degree may be obtained by extension
work from another institution.
At least fifty percent of the work counted toward a doctoral degree program must
be composed of courses having residence status at Texas Woman’s University.
Major and Minor
Specific requirements for the major and minor subjects are determined by the
dean of the college or chair of the committee in consultation with the department in
which the candidate seeks the minor. Detailed statements regarding majors and minors
are in the departmental, school, and college sections of this catalog. At least half
of the courses for the minor must be completed in residence at TWU.
Grade Requirements
No course with a grade below B is accepted toward a doctoral degree at the
University.
The doctoral student is expected to maintain a cumulative grade point average of
at least B. When a student’s cumulative grade point average on graduate-level work
falls below B during any one semester or full summer session of twelve weeks, or when
a student receives a grade of D or F, the student is placed on academic probation and
notified of this status. The student's next enrollment during a long semester or full
summer session must restore the cumulative average to B or above. Failure to accomplish
this results in dismissal from the Graduate School. The grade record at the Texas
Woman’s University cannot be improved by attendance at another university.
If a doctoral student earns grades below B in program courses, continuation in
the degree program is reviewed by the student’s advisory committee. A student is not
allowed to continue in the doctoral program if there are two failing grades (F or WF)
in the doctoral program.
Limit on Course Load
Normally nine or more graduate semester hours are considered a full course load,
and a doctoral student’s load may not exceed twelve hours in any one semester without
the approval of the Dean of Graduate Studies and Research.
Tuition for Doctoral Hours Exceeding Legislated Limit
The Texas Legislature has amended the state's Education Code to limit funding of
doctoral credits for any student at any institution to 99 hours. TWU doctoral students
are charged at the out-of-state tuition rate for any doctoral work in excess of 99
semester hours. By exception, TWU doctoral students in Counseling Psychology are
charged at the out-of-state tuition rate for any doctoral work in excess of 130
semester hours. Doctoral students should, therefore, work closely with their advisors
to plan a course of study that will prevent their inadvertently exceeding the
limitation.
Time Limits
All requirements toward a doctoral degree, aside from a completed master’s d
egree, must be completed within a period of ten consecutive calendar years from the
date doctoral credit is first earned.
Admission to Candidacy
When a student applies for admission to candidacy, the Dean of Graduate Studies
and Research appoints a research committee from a list of faculty members suggested by
the student in consultation with the chair of the department and submitted by the dean
of the college in which the student is enrolled. This committee evaluates the student’s
professional promise, plans for continued study, and progress with respect to the
dissertation; the committee then arranges for the student’s qualifying examination,
and later passes finally upon the dissertation and sets the final examination of the
candidate for the doctoral degree. Admission to candidacy requires the following:
- Unconditional admission to the Graduate School;
- Demonstration of professional promise;
- Good academic standing;
- Completion of research tools;
- Satisfaction of the residence requirement, if required;
- Successful completion of qualifying examination.
The qualifying examination consists of written and/or oral comprehensive examinations
conducted by the candidate’s committee and administered at least one academic year
before the degree is expected to be conferred, ordinarily not earlier than during the
last semester of the second full year of graduate study. In no case may a student be
excused from the qualifying examination. (NOTE: The student must have met research tool
and any residence requirements before taking the qualifying examination.)
Research Tools
Doctoral studies require skills and techniques (tools) that vary with the
specific needs of the discipline. The degree-granting components determine the
suitability of specific research tools for their programs. In general, such tools
comprise coursework equivalent to a minimum of six credit hours for each tool.
Equivalent competencies may, if acceptable to the component, be demonstrated by
examination. The degree-granting component establishes whether the credits are included
in the 90 hours required for the program or whether they are required in addition to
the minimum hours needed for the degree.
Dissertation
Each doctoral candidate must write a dissertation based upon research which
makes an original contribution to the literature and research of the student’s
discipline. The Dean of Graduate Studies and Research appoints the dissertation
director upon recommendation of the dean of the college or school of the doctoral
major. In final form, the dissertation must be approved by the student’s committee,
specified administrators of the appropriate college or school, and the Dean of Graduate
Studies and Research.
Before the student begins the formal research for the dissertation, the
prospectus should be approved by both the Research Committee and the Dean of Graduate
Studies and Research.
To secure credit for work done on the dissertation, the student must register
for this work. When “Dissertation’’ appears on the schedule, it is counted as from
three to six semester hours in determining both load and tuition and fees. When the
dissertation work is done in summer school, the dissertation course must be elected for
at least two summer terms.
Graduate students are urged to use the computer and research consultant services
of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science in the preparation of their
professional papers, theses, and dissertations. When these services are to be used,
students must enroll in CSCI 5921 (Research Consultation Laboratory). The course may be
repeated for additional credit as needed.
The grade of PR will be assigned to indicate progress on a dissertation. A
student writing a dissertation for six hours’ credit will be given CR (Credit) for
the first enrollment and PR (Progress) for all subsequent enrollments until the last,
for which CR will be given again. A student writing a dissertation for twelve hours’
credit will be given CR for the first two enrollments and for the last two enrollments
and PR for enrollments in between.
Only an officially registered student may hold conferences with faculty
concerning the preparation of a dissertation. This rule applies both to the student in
actual residence and to the student not in residence who is receiving aid or criticism
through conferences or correspondence. This rule does not apply to preliminary
conferences held before the dissertation subject has been selected. Registration for
dissertation in one term is good for that term only and does not extend to the next
term.
The appropriate number of copies and the original of the approved dissertation
must be delivered to the Graduate Office no later than the filing date listed in the
Graduate Office “Calendar of Deadlines.’’ Bound at the expense of the student, one copy
is placed in the University Library and the second in the files of the college of the
major. These copies become the property of the University. Under certain conditions,
usually related to special research fellowships or programs or to continuing university,
college, foundation, or industrial research programs, it may be necessary for the
student, by prior agreement with the dissertation director, to pay for and submit more
than two copies.
All dissertations are microfilmed by University Microfilms and included in
Dissertation Abstracts International. The student pays for this microfilming at the
time of filing the dissertation and abstract in the Graduate School. Copyrighting,
which remains optional, may be secured through University Microfilms for an additional
fee. Details concerning the abstracts, microfilming, copyrighting, and their fees are
available in the Graduate School. The student is urged to consult the Graduate School
publication Guide to the Preparation and Processing of Dissertations, Thesis, and
Professional Papers (available at
http://www.twu.edu/o-grad/)
for additional information.
Final Examinations
When the research committee has approved the candidate’s dissertation and all
other requirements for the degree have been met, the student stands a final examination
before the committee. The final examination is oral, written, or both, and includes a
defense of the dissertation and the research on which it is based, as well as questions
concerning both the major and minor fields.
Formal notice of satisfactory completion of the final examination must be filed
in the Graduate School by the date specified for each session in the Graduate School
“Calendar of Deadlines.’’
