Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Degree

The Higher Education Program offers two doctoral degree tracks: one for practitioners and another for researchers. The principal research degree is the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). See Doctoral Student Handbook (pdf).

Outcomes of the Ph.D.

Upon completion of the Doctoral degree, graduates will have mastered a comprehensive body of knowledge related to the subject matter field of higher education. Doctoral graduates will have demonstrated knowledge and competence in utilizing the analytic skills of disciplined inquiry and the leadership skills associated with the management and administration of postsecondary institutions. The graduate will delineate a code of professional ethics and demonstrate knowledge and application of technologies used in administration, leadership, and teaching-learning. The Ph.D. student will demonstrate knowledge of theory and research through the composition of an integrated literature review of research, the development of testable hypotheses generated from deductive and inductive logic, and the elaboration of a research design that will meet rigorous methodological standards for theoretical and empirical research on a selected topic.

Admission Requirements

An applicant for admission to the Ph.D. program must meet all three of the following requirements: (1) a GPA of 3.0 or better on a 4.0 scale for the last two years of undergraduate study, (2) a GPA of 3.5 or better on a 4.0 scale for a Master's or Ed.S. degree, and (3) a score 1050 or better on the combined verbal and quantitative sections of the GRE.

The doctoral program is highly selective, and meeting minimum requirements is not a guarantee of admission. Factors which are relevant to the admissions decision include, but are not limited to, management and leadership experience in higher education, high motivation to achieve personal and professional goals consistent with the program's mission, and evidence of outstanding written and oral communication skills.

It is strongly recommended, but not required, that persons with a Master's degree have three to five years of work experience in a postsecondary institution or agency before applying to a doctoral program.

Doctoral Residency

Residency credits must be earned by each student after being admitted to a doctoral program. Residency is a University requirement; it is enforced by the Dean of Graduate Studies without exception. A Ph.D. student must accumulate 24 credits in 12 consecutive months. A majority of the course credit earned as part of meeting residency must be graded credit.

Ph.D. Degree Requirements

The Ph.D. degree requires a minimum of 69 semester hours of coursework beyond the master's degree with a 3.00 minimum GPA and 24 hours of dissertation credit. The minimum of 69 semester hours must include 14 hours of higher education core courses, 9 hours of departmental core courses, 22 hours of research courses, 12 hours in an outside minor field, and 12 hours of higher education electives.

All Ph.D. students must complete 12 credit hours for an outside minor. A student should select a faculty member from an outside program or department and in consultation with this person select 12 credit hours for the outside minor. At least nine of these hours must be letter-graded (A, B, C). Research methods courses may not be used to satisfy this requirement.

All Ph.D. students must complete the research courses before the preliminary examination can be taken. A supervisory committee may require additional substantive and/or research courses, so that the doctoral candidate will be able to competently pursue his/her dissertation research.

Financial Assistance

Graduate assistantships are available to well-qualified doctoral students who enroll full-time. Graduate assistants are expected to contribute their time and energy to major research or service projects associated with the Department, affiliated centers, individual faculty grant projects, or various College and FSU offices. Additionally, a few doctoral fellowships are available campus-wide on a competitive basis for students with high GRE scores. Consult the General Bulletin - Graduate Edition for additional information on University scholarships, fellowships and assistantships.

Florida State University requires graduate students to be enrolled full-time to qualify for assistantships or fellowships. A full-time student must carry 12 credit hours, unless he/she is working as a graduate assistant, in which case 9 hours is the minimum. Graduate students financing their education with a loan(s) should note that most lenders require students to carry a full credit load; at FSU that is 12 credit hours unless the student has an assistantship.

Tuition Waivers

Although tuition waivers are not guaranteed, partial to full tuition waivers are often available in the fall and spring with some assistantships. Tuition waivers are awarded through the Department of Educational Leadership. The funds are limited and every good faith effort is made to assign the money fairly. The funds available may not be sufficient to fully fund every student. Some assistantships arranged with other divisions of the University or outside agencies may not carry a tuition waiver. Summer funding is very limited. It is the student's responsibility to find additional funding sources, usually through the Office of Financial Aid. Students with assistantships must register for nine hours of coursework to receive a tuition waiver in the fall or spring. A student may take 12 hours, but would need to pay for the additional hours.

Academic Common Market

FSU permits in-state fees for students from a state that is a member of the Academic Common Market of the Southern Regional Education Board if that state recognizes the Higher Education Program at FSU. Currently these states accept one or more graduate degree programs in Higher Education from FSU: Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Contact the state higher education office (e.g. Board of Regents) of the state in which you are a current resident for additional information. If your home state is not listed, you may contact the appropriate state office and request it to participate and recognize the FSU Higher Education Program.