Requirements

Transfer of Credits

A maximum of 30 semester credit hours will be permitted for credit from completion of a committee approved master’s degree (research credits cannot be transferred; only course credits can be transferred). Of the 90 graduate semester credits required for a Ph.D., at least 33 credits, plus all dissertation research credits, must be earned under the supervision of the student's committee at Purdue University.

Residency Requirements

The total number of hours of academic credit used to satisfy residency requirements consists of all course credit hours that appear on the plan of study, other graduate course credit hours with grades of “C” or better that appear on the Purdue University transcript, and research credit hours with grades of “S” that appear on the Purdue University transcript.

Doctoral degree students must have at least one-third of the total credit hours used to satisfy degree requirements earned while registered for doctoral study in continuous residence on the Purdue University campus where the degree is to be granted. At least 90 credit hours are required; however, some program areas may require more than 90 credit hours. A master’s degree from any accredited university is considered to contribute 30 credit hours toward satisfying this residency requirement.

In fulfilling these requirements, a maximum of 18 credit hours will be allowed from any one semester (maximum hours proportional to length of summer session equals nine (9) credit hours).

Publication Requirement

Scholarship plays a very important role in the preparation of M.S. and Ph.D. students in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute. Graduate students need to understand the role of scholarship in higher education as well as its importance in disseminating new knowledge. The Purdue Polytechnic values the role and contribution of its faculty and students in its efforts to engage in discovery with impact. It is important that graduate students learn how to create and present scholarship as part of their academic training. For these reasons, the Purdue Polytechnic requires all Ph.D. students and M.S. thesis students to engage in scholarship.

Ph.D. students are required to be first author on at least one-refereed journal article or refereed conference proceedings and co-author on one other refereed journal article or refereed conference proceeding. These articles may be published or “in review”.

Exceptions to the above requirements have to be approved by the student’s committee chair and the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies. Some other form of scholarship should be substituted for the above if the student requests an exception.

Time Requirements

Students pursuing the Ph.D. degree have up to eight years to complete their program. If the student exceeds these limits, the student may be dismissed for lack of satisfactory progress or, when circumstances are justified, may be required to retake some courses or take new courses to replace out-of-date courses. Typically, master’s plus students (those entering the program with a qualified master’s degree) complete their coursework in three (3) years, and complete their preliminary examination at the end of that period. The research proposal and the final dissertation are typically completed in the subsequent two (2) years.

Direct to Ph.D. students (those entering with a qualified bachelor’s degree) typically complete their coursework in four (4) years. After the first year, but before the third, students must pass qualifying examinations. In their final year, students complete the preliminary examination. The research proposal and the final dissertation are typically completed in the subsequent two (2) years.