Information Science with a concentration in Linguistics, PhD

A student with a previous master’s degree must earn a minimum of 60 semester hours of graduate credit beyond the master’s degree in organized course work, independent study and the dissertation. Additional courses above the 60 hours also may be stipulated as needed, such as the research tool and subject tool requirement. Courses counted toward the doctorate must be numbered 5000 or above (except INFO 5000 , INFO 5080 , INFO 5200 or INFO 5600 ) and must be chosen with the approval of a faculty academic advisor.

A student with no previous master’s degree must earn a minimum of 72 semester hours of graduate course work in organized course work, independent study and the dissertation. Additional courses above the 72 hours also may be stipulated as needed. Courses counted toward the doctorate must be numbered 5000 or above and must be chosen with the approval of a faculty academic advisor. The student formally concludes course work by passing the qualifying examination before fully engaging in dissertation research.

Required core courses, 12 hours

These courses are the same for every concentration or general program of study in the information science PhD program.

Research courses, 21 hours minimum

Minimum of 21 graduate credit hours, e. g., individual research courses, directed studies, special topics courses, internships and doctoral dissertation.

Required research courses

Remaining research hours

For the remaining required hours of research, students choose from the following.

Concentration required courses, 18 hours

The following courses are required for the concentration in linguistics; their equivalents may be substituted with an advisor’s approval.

Concentration electives, 9 hours minimum

Students take a minimum of 9 hours of electives in the concentration from the following list; students may take equivalent courses with advisor approval.

Doctoral Committee

The doctoral committee comprises at least three faculty members who represent at least two academic units, one of which is the Department of Information Science. The committee is formed by the student and serves to evaluate the student’s work at the qualifying examination, dissertation proposal, and dissertation stages.

Progress toward the degree

The student must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3. 0 (B) on all course work on the degree plan.

In addition,

all core courses must be completed with a grade of A or B;
no more than two C’s in the non-core program requirements will count toward the degree; and
no course with a grade below C will count toward the degree.

The maximum time allowed for completing the doctoral degree is 8 years. A faculty academic advisor meets with each student at least annually to review the student’s progress in the program. The student is eligible to sit for the qualifying examination when he or she has designated a doctoral committee, met all degree plan requirements except dissertation hours, and cleared any incomplete grades. When a student passes the qualifying examination, he or she is admitted to candidacy. The doctoral candidate must write and successfully defend a dissertation proposal and a completed dissertation in order to complete the degree.