Ph.D. REQUIREMENTS AND PROCEDURES

Program of Study

The Graduate Coordinator will advise all students for their first 9 credits of doctoral courses. A program of study will be developed after the major professor is designated and the student's preliminary exam committee is formed. The program of study will list all courses that the student must take to fulfill degree requirements. The major professor and the student’s preliminary exam committee must approve programs of study. According to The Graduate School Bulletin of 1998-1999 (p. 24), "Doctoral students' programs of study should be submitted to the Office of the Graduate Studies during the second semester of full-time work or upon completion of 12 credit hours."

STUDENT MAJOR PROFESSOR AND PRELIMINARY EXAM COMMITTEE

The student will select the major professor, who must be a member of the Department of Political Science Level One Graduate Faculty, after completing nine credits of doctoral work. The student and major professor then will select other members of the student's preliminary exam committee. The preliminary exam committee will include the committee chair, one faculty member teaching courses in the public administration concentration, and one faculty member teaching courses in the public policy concentration, one person teaching courses in the elective concentration or minor area. If a faculty member outside the department serves as an elective concentration or minor area professor, one additional committee member will be added from among the remaining department faculty members. The student and the elective concentration or minor area professor will select elective concentration or minor area courses in conjunction with the major professor. This committee will monitor the student's progress and concur in necessary program modifications. The major professor will serve as the student’s advisor.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Required Courses: Public Administration Concentration Courses (15 credits)

PPA 9603 Scope of American Public Administration

PPA 9703 Organization Behavior in the Public Sector

PPA 9713 Administration of Human Resources in a Public Sector Environment

PPA 9723 Public Budgeting Processes and Their Policy Implications

PPA 9613 Rural Government Administration

Required Public Policy Concentration Courses (12 credits)

PPA 9903 Public Policy Formulation and Implementation

PPA Comparative Public Policy??

PPA 9103 American Political Institutions

PPA 9893 American Political Behavior

Elective Concentration (9 credits)

Students will develop an elective concentration consistent with their professional goals. The major professor and the student’s preliminary exam committee must approve courses in the student’s elective concentration. Students completing a minor in another department will be required to complete 12 hours or course work.

Research Methodology (9 credits)**

Quantitative Anal. Students who do not pass a departmental methods exam must take Prerequisite one of the following analysis classes.

PPA 8803

SO 8274

ST 8114

EPY 6214

PPA 8993 Research Design and Philosophy of Science

PPA 9803 Multivariate Analysis and Design for Public Affairs

Qualitative Anal. Students must take one of the following classes.

PPA 9813

SO 8233

**For students interested in having an elective concentration in Research Methods, one of the required courses will count as three of their nine elective hours. Thus, they will need to complete only 6 additional hours of course work to achieve an elective concentration in Research Methods.

Dissertation Research

PPA 9000 Dissertation Research and Dissertation

A minimum of 20 semester credits of dissertation research must be scheduled.

Transfer Credits

Students who are enrolled in doctoral programs at other institutions may transfer up to nine credits of doctoral work if approved by the Ph.D. Admissions Committee.

MASTER LEVEL CLASSES

Students who take classes open to master’s students should complete additional assignments over and above those completed by master’s students.

STUDENT DIAGNOSTIC REVIEWS

The Ph.D. faculty will review the performance of each student after the completion of 18 hours of graduate work at Mississippi State University but no later than the end of the second year. The examination shall include a review of grades, and where appropriate, seminar papers and other evidence of potential to complete preliminary examinations and dissertation. It shall also include an oral interview with the Ph.D. faculty. The committee shall, in writing, advises the student to "continue," "terminate" or "continue with reservations." In each case the student will be advised of what, if anything, should be done to improve the quality of the student's academic work. The decision of the faculty will be binding.

WRITTEN AND ORAL PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION

In order to ensure that the student has acquired the skills and basic knowledge to carry out the research necessary for the dissertation, the student will be required to pass preliminary examinations, both written and oral, when all course work on the program of study has been completed. Students who pass all parts of the preliminary examination will be admitted to candidacy to the Ph.D. degree.

PRELIMINARY WRITTEN EXAMINATION

Each student will take a three section written preliminary examination covering the public administration concentration, the public policy concentration, and their elective concentration respectively. Students must take all sections of the exam during the same semester. Students who fail a portion of the exam must wait until the failed portion normally is offered again to retake it. Persons taking a minor area outside of the Department of Political Science will follow the time schedule and exam procedures of the outside department. Students may complete outside exams either before or after taking the public administration and public policy concentrations.

The Graduate Coordinator will distribute a memo to Ph.D. students at the beginning of each semester outlining the logistics for preliminary examinations. Students normally will use word processing to prepare their answers. Alternative methods for taking the exams may be approved by the Graduate Coordinator, but arrangements for alternative methods must be made no less than one week in advance of the exam.

The public administration exam will ordinarily be offered during the last week in September and the third week in February. The public policy exam will be offered the first week in October and the last week in February. The elective exam for persons taking elective classes within the department will be offered during the second week in October and the first week in March.

Public Administration Concentration Exams

The closed book public administration exam normally will consist of a six-hour required

field question routinely administered on Wednesday and a six-hour focused exam usually administered on Friday in which students will be required to answer two of four questions. The members of the public administration core will serve as exam graders. The core faculty will meet to discuss and evaluate the student’s performance on the exam. An absolute majority of graders present must vote to pass before that individual can proceed to the oral stage of the examination process.

Public Policy Concentration Exams

The Public Policy Exam normally will be administered on Wednesday and Friday of the designated week. The exam will be an in-house, open book, open notes exam. However, the student will not be allowed to bring diskettes into the exam, nor have access to the Internet. On Wednesday the student will be given a maximum of six hours to answer a mandatory question. This question will be constructed so as to require the student to integrate material from the different courses in the public policy area into their answer. On Friday, the student will be given a maximum of six hours to answer two of four questions. These questions will be oriented around course specific information. All members of the public policy group, plus the professor the student had for the Seminar in Public Policy Formulation and Implementation, will comprise the student’s examining committee. The graders will then meet to discuss and evaluate the student’s performance on the exam. An absolute majority of graders present must vote to pass a student, before that individual can proceed to the oral stage of the examination process.

Elective Concentration

The elective concentration exam will normally be offered on Friday of the designated week. It will be prepared by at least three faculty members. This six-hour exam can be open or closed book at the discretion of the examiners. If the exam is open book, the student will not be allowed to bring diskettes into the exam, nor have access to the Internet. The graders will then meet to discuss and evaluate the student’s performance on the exam. An absolute majority of graders present must vote to pass a student before that individual can proceed to the oral stage of the examination process.

Students who minor in another discipline will follow the exam procedures of the minor department.

Notification of Exam Results

The student's performance on each concentration written examination (administration, policy and elective) will be designated "pass with distinction," "pass," or "fail." The Graduate coordinator will inform the student in writing as to whether the student passed or failed various areas of the written examination. Once the Graduate coordinator notifies the student about performance on the written examination, the student may discuss the examination with faculty members.

ORAL EXAMINATION

Oral Examination Committee

The oral examination committee will consist of the student's preliminary exam committee.

The Oral Examination

Students must pass the written exam in all areas (public administration, public policy and elective concentration/minor area) before proceeding to the oral exam. The major professor, in conjunction with the student and the graduate coordinator, will schedule the oral examination.

The oral examination committee will designate the student's overall preliminary examination performance "pass with distinction," "pass," "fail," or "pass with conditions" immediately upon completion of the oral examination. Whether the preliminary examination committee consists of four or five persons, if more than one member votes to fail the person being examined, the student fails the preliminary oral examination. All oral examination committee members must vote in the affirmative for the student to pass with distinction. The oral examination committee may terminate the oral exam at any point during the session. The oral examination committee may ask questions about public administration and public policy concepts and ideas not covered on the written examination.

Notification of Preliminary Examination Results

The graduate coordinator will inform the student in writing whether or not the student passed or failed the preliminary examination. Office of Graduate Studies policy specifies that two failures of the preliminary examination result in automatic termination from the program.

DISSERTATION COMMITTEE

After the preliminary examinations have been passed, the student's dissertation committee will be constituted. The major professor may continue to serve in that capacity and as dissertation director, and the student and major professor will select the remainder of the committee members.

A dissertation committee consists of four Political Science graduate faculty members. At least one person must come from the core public administration faculty and one person from public policy faculty. If the dissertation committee includes one additional graduate faculty member from outside the Department of Political Science, whether from other units of Mississippi State or another university, the dissertation committee consists of five persons.

ADMISSION TO Ph.D. CANDIDACY

Students are admitted to Ph.D. candidacy once the following items are completed:

1. The preliminary examination is passed.

2. The dissertation topic is selected and approved.

DISSERTATION

The dissertation must be an original work that makes a significant contribution to an area of public administration and/or public policy. Students will prepare a written dissertation prospectus in consultation with their dissertation committee. Once the written prospectus is completed to the satisfaction of the committee chair and committee members, students will conduct a scheduled oral defense of the prospectus before a joint meeting of the student's dissertation committee. These steps are intended to encourage adequate planning for the research and to correct problems at an early stage. Successful defense of the dissertation prospectus requires approval of at least four members of the dissertation committee.

DISSERTATION DEFENSE

With the approval of the major professor, the student will circulate copies of the

draft dissertation to all members of the dissertation committee. Whether the dissertation committee consists of four or five persons, if more than one member does not approve the dissertation prior to the oral defense, an oral defense may not be scheduled. The defense date must be advertised at least two weeks prior to the scheduled date. In addition to the dissertation committee, other interested persons are invited to attend.

The oral defense constitutes a seminar that affords the student an opportunity to share the results of the research with members of the dissertation committee and others present. Once the oral defense is completed, whether the dissertation committee consists of four or five persons, if more than one member does not approve the dissertation, the dissertation is not successfully defended. After the student has successfully defended the dissertation, it shall be submitted to the College of Arts and Sciences and the Mitchell Memorial Library.

GENERAL PROGRAM PROCEDURES

RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT

Three years or the equivalent in residence must be spent in course work and in research. In effect, students must register, as a full time or part time student, for the Ph.D. degree for a time period equaling three calendar years. At some time in the student’s doctoral career, it is necessary to devote one full semester (nine credits) or two-semester half time (six credits each) to the Ph.D. program at Mississippi State University. See 1998-1999 Graduate School Bulletin, p. 42.

TIME LIMIT

Students must complete the Ph.D. within eight years, with the date of initial enrollment in courses for the Ph.D. degree (including any prerequisites) serving as the beginning point.

DOCUMENT INTERPRETATION

Responsibility for the interpretation of this document resides with the Ph.D. Committee.