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Candidates for the PhD degree must specialize in one of the research areas where the department has in-depth competence. These include urban, economic, historical and physical geography. The doctoral program has given parts, which must be completed by the student to the satisfaction of the department:
Students who concentrate in physical geography should have at least nine Full-time candidates are expected to register for 15 hours of graduate credit during each quarter of their three-year residency. They must become familiar with, and operate in accordance with, the regulations of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of the University of Cincinnati, as well as with the departmental guidelines set out in this document. PhD candidates are required to complete 135 graduate credits past an acceptable BA degree or 90-graduate credits past an acceptable MA degree. Doctoral dissertations must conform to departmental conventions and University of Cincinnati graduate school standards. Students whose background preparation for the required graduate-level courses is weak, or who lack certain of the background skills for writing a dissertation, are expected to repair these deficiencies by taking appropriate courses, if necessary, at the undergraduate level. The department evaluates student performance regularly at the end of the first quarter, in each course and seminar, and through a written progress report submitted by each graduate student during the spring quarter (by May 15) of each year. At the end of the second quarter of residence, all PhD students must select a faculty adviser, or a faculty adviser will be appointed by the director of graduate studies. It is the faculty adviser's responsibility to assist graduate students in the completion of all degree requirements in a timely manner, to monitor student academic progress and to mentor students during their graduate career. Every quarter, a student's course schedule is worked out in consultation with the director of graduate studies and the faculty adviser. As an essential part of their educational experience, and as a condition of admission to a degree program, all full-time graduate students are given certain responsibilities within the department as research, teaching, fieldwork, cartographic, or computer assistants. These responsibilities involve approximately 15 hours per week during the academic year, over and above time spent in classes. PhD Requirements Doctoral students are required to complete the core course requirements outlined below. Students may seek permission not to take certain courses if they can demonstrate an achieved competence through previous work. Such petitions are considered by the director of graduate studies and other faculty members closely identified with the subject of the petition. Students petitioning out of required courses must take an equivalent number of graduate credits in other courses. 1. Required courses
Total credit hours for required courses = 37 - 44 credit hours. 2. Required Seminars All PhD graduate students must complete at least five geography research seminars or approved specialized courses of 500 level or above (Geog. 579 Field Work and Research Methods may be used as one research seminar). 3. Minor Requirements As one of the requirements for the PhD degree, candidates in the Department of Geography must develop an academic minor in a field other than geography. The minor should enable the candidate to understand his/her discipline better and should acquaint the candidate with the methods and philosophy of that discipline. The minor program is planned through consultation with the candidate's adviser, who is also responsible for certifying its completion. Correlative fields in which the PhD minor might be developed, and which complement the doctoral specializations of the Department of Geography, include regional economics, urban sociology, economic development, urban government, community planning, urban history, environmental chemistry, environmental biology, ecology, physical anthropology, geochemistry and structural geology. Other fields of study for the minor are also acceptable. Appropriate interdisciplinary courses may also be counted towards the minor for example, the year-long seminar, "Frontiers of Urban Research" (15-041-814, 815, 816). A mix of credits from more than one other department might be appropriate. The PhD minor requirement is satisfied when the candidate has completed at
4. Language/Technique Requirement As one of the requirements for the PhD degree, all students must demonstrate proficiency in English. Candidates in the Department of Geography are expected to acquire competence in the research tools appropriate to their endeavors as graduate students and to their future professional work. Often these are foreign languages or technique skills. The language and technique requirement is set by the studentŐs dessertation adviser and the director of graduate studies. PhD students can fulfill the language requirement by demonstrating their proficiency at reading one foreign language in which either a substantial geographical literature exists or which will be required for field work connected with the dissertation. (Students whose native language is not English may use English to satisfy the language requirement.) Foreign Language proficiency can be shown in any one of four ways:
Doctoral students may use a series of computer science courses (a total of
12 cr. hrs) at 300 level or above with a grade of "B" or better to
fulfill the technique requirement. Courses proposed for satisfying the
technique requirement must emphasize methodology, and they should tend toward
universal applicability. The courses have to be approved by the student's
dissertation adviser and the director of graduate studies. Doctoral 5. The PhD Examination To be admitted to candidacy for the PhD degree in geography, graduate students must pass written comprehensive examinations set by the Department of Geography in each of the following areas:
The comprehensive examination may be taken during the fifth and sixth weeks of the autumn, winter, or spring quarters at times set by the department. It comprises four separate papers of three hours each on the topic areas named above. Normally, the examination sections are given sequentially over a period not exceeding one week. Students wishing to attempt the comprehensive examination during a particular quarter must make this request in writing to the director of graduate studies during the first week of that quarter. Students are notified promptly of the exact time and place of the examination, as determined by the department. This letter of request should also contain:
The director of graduate studies may decline to arrange a comprehensive examination if the candidate's letter of request fails to indicate adequate preparation for the examination. Questions for the comprehensive examination are composed, given and graded by the Department of Geography acting as a whole. The area of specialization nominated by the candidate should be a sub-field of the discipline, neither so broad as to demand a lifetime of prior study nor so narrow as to constitute a dissertation topic. "Asia," in this example, would be too broad; "The Distribution of Chinese Religious Shrines in Penang, 1914-18," too narrow. "The Chinese in Southeast Asia," in this example, might approach the golden mean. Similarly, "Urban Geography" or "Political Ruddiness as a Factor in the Location of Canberra's Embassies" would be unacceptable, but not "Population Redistribution in the Contemporary American City," nor "Urbanization in the Developing World." Generally, a student should not elect to specialize in a particular culture region unless he or she has already done field work there, or reasonably expects to do so, and unless he or she has mastered any foreign language needed in the field. Each part of the comprehensive examination is evaluated separately by the staff, and any part may pass if more than half the staff agrees. Any part which fails may be re-examined in a subsequent quarter. Re-examination is permitted only once, and second failure carries with it dismissal from the graduate program in geography. The faculty also reserves the privileges of reviewing a student's performance at the comprehensive examinations in toto and demanding that a candidate distinguish himself/herself in one or more of the four parts. 6. Admission to Candidacy To be admitted to candidacy for the PhD degree in geography, a student must
Students must enter candidacy not more than five years after their admission into the PhD program. 7. PhD Dissertation (See following page) "Research is one of those highly complex and subtle activities that usually remain quite unformulated in the minds of those who practice them" (W.I.B. Beveridge: The Art of Scientific Investigation). The Department of Geography recognizes that research is a highly individual matter and is fully prepared to accept high quality work however produced. At the same time, it recognizes that "good methods can teach us to develop and use to better purpose the faculties with which nature has endowed us, while poor methods may prevent us from turning them to good account. Thus the genius of inventiveness, so precious in the sciences, may be diminished or even smothered by a poor method, while a good method may increase and develop it" (Claude Bernard, quoted in Beveridge, ibid).
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135 graduate credits past an acceptable BA/BS degree, or
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