Grad Handbook | Political Science | College of Liberal Arts

Ph.D. Program Description

Ph.D. Program Goals

The primary goal in the Ph.D. program is to train professional, academic political scientists. Ph.D. graduates have gone on to become faculty members at other colleges and universities. UNR graduate students routinely obtain positions at all levels of government, or use their degrees as a platform to advance their current career trajectories. In helping students achieve their goals, the program has the following objectives for students:

1. To demonstrate the ability to apply political science and other social science theories to research questions
2. To design and conduct independent analyses appropriate to research questions within the field of political science
3. To apply methodological training that addresses important political and social questions
4. To demonstrate advanced skills in professional communication appropriate for presentation to professional audiences in academia, government, or industry
5. To complete a research project involving issues of politics and public policy

The courses in the Ph.D. program cover a full range of the discipline, both in terms of substance and methodology. Foundational seminar courses provide the needed background in specific areas of training. Courses in research methodology provide the skills necessary for sophisticated analysis of political processes, institutions, and policies. More-specialized interests are developed through independent courses and projects that students take as part of the curriculum and through working directly with professors.

The strength of the Ph.D. program lies in its small size and the diversity of its faculty members. Students work closely with Ph.D. faculty members throughout their residency in the department. The department’s faculty come from a range of backgrounds, with many being first generation undergraduate degree and Ph.D. degree holders. Faculty members publish in top political science and field journals; consult for local, state, federal, and international institutions; hold research grants; and conduct extensive field research in their respective areas. Faculty members are consistently rated by students as outstanding teachers, with members holding teaching and advising awards from the college, the university, and the Nevada system of higher education (NSHE).

Ph.D. Degree Coursework

The Ph.D. degree requires 60 credits beyond the B.A. degree. Please see the Graduate School’s webpages for Program of Study requirements, and the General Catalog. 6 credits are required for comprehensive examinations.

Whether a student pursues the Ph.D. part-time or full-time, the student must complete all requirements for the degree within the Graduate School’s eight-year limit. The course requirements that follow are the minimum standards established by the Department. Students may take courses beyond the minimum in preparation for comprehensive exams and dissertation research.

Students accepted into the Ph.D. program are expected to study in two of the five fields the department offers as specializations. We do not offer a focus in Political Theory at the Ph.D. level:

1. American Politics
2. Comparative Politics
3. International Relations
4. Public Policy
5. Public Administration

The Ph.D. program requires all students to fulfill the following minimum course requirements:

1. Scope and Methods: 12 credits – At the discretion of the Director of Graduate Studies, students with prior graduate-level training that covers the material in these courses may have some of these courses. Students still must meet minimum credit hour requirements.
2. First Field: 12 credits – To be selected in consultation with the student’s advisor/committee chair
3. Second Field: 9 credits – To be selected in consultation with the student’s advisor/committee chair
4. Field Seminars and/or Electives: 9 credits – To be selected in consultation with the student’s advisor/committee chair
5. Dissertation: 12 dissertation credits.
6. Comprehensive Examinations: 6 Credits – Typically 3 credits in the fall and 3 credits in the Spring. Also see Ph.D. Comprehensive Examinations.

For most updated course offerings, please check “Political Science, PhD Program” on the University Catalog. You should also discuss courses with your advisor and/or Director of Graduate Studies.

Dissertation Prospectus

Students are required to write a prospectus (a research plan for the dissertation) to be approved by their Ph.D. committee. Students should defend their prospectus within six months of passing their comprehensive exams. The prospectus is defended orally to the committee, at which time the committee may accept or reject the prospectus or require revisions to the prospectus. Students should arrange a prospectus meeting in consultation with their committee chair and members.

Completion of a Dissertation

The dissertation must represent original and independent investigation that is a contribution to knowledge. The dissertation must demonstrate the student’s ability to select and delimit a topic for analysis, to assemble pertinent empirical data, to ground the analysis in a relevant body of theory and literature, to execute a research design, and to express the findings effectively both in written form and in an oral defense. The committee will collectively decide whether the student has passed their oral defense; passage of the defense may be contingent upon revisions to the dissertation. Specifications for the dissertation should be determined in close consultation with the faculty advisor.

Maintaining Academic Standing in the Ph.D. Program

The UNR Graduate School requires that all graduate students must maintain a cumulative graduate GPA of 3.0. for continuous enrolment. If their GPA drops below 3.0 they are either placed on probation or dismissed. Undergraduate courses will not count towards graduate GPA.

To complete the Ph.D. degree, students must be in good academic standing with the Department of Political Science and the Graduate School. In other words, all students must meet the graduation requirements of both the Department of Political Science and of the Graduate School of the University of Nevada, Reno. All PhD students must be making timely progress to the degree and maintain professional behavior in the PhD program. In addition to satisfying minimum requirements of continuous enrolment by the Graduate School, all funded students must satisfy departmental expectations to receive continuous funding (see Financial Aid & Graduate Assistantship).

In graduate studies, generally grades below a “B” (including “B-”) are considered failing. These grades can seriously affect the student’s progress and will certainly impact the student’s ability to maintain any departmental-level funding the student may have. Grades below B do not count toward degree course requirements.

While the Graduate School uses a 3.00 cumulative GPA as the minimum threshold, the Department of Political Science may also terminate a student from the program if the student receives six or more credits of B- or lower grades, or three credits of C or lower grades. For the purposes of this policy, grades of “U” will be equivalent of a grade below C and a student can be dismissed for three credits of “U” grades. “S” grades are to be avoided when letter grades are available. Students who do not successfully complete a course (i.e., a grade of B or better) may retake the course. However, if the student does not successfully complete the course after the second time, the student will be dismissed from the program by the Director of Graduate Studies for insufficient progress toward the degree.

To maintain good standing, students need to successfully complete any course with a grade of “I” by the semester following the one in which it was given. “I” grades should not be used without careful consideration. Students with “I” grades lasting more than one semester will be dismissed from the program by the Director of Graduate Studies for insufficient progress toward the degree. Students with “I” grades are not eligible to sit for comprehensive exams, which may further imperil their good standing.

Students may be dismissed for unprofessional behavior, unethical conduct, and other infractions of the standards of the university and our professional standards. Violations of these standards include but are not limited to cheating on exams, plagiarizing, and other forms of intellectual dishonesty. They also include indecent or dangerous conduct, theft, false accusation, discrimination, or the use or threat of force or violence, sexual harassment, hazing, and violations of local, state, and federal law. For more on professional standards see the UNR Student Conduct website and the “Guide to Professional Ethics in Political Science” published by the American Political Science Association.

Ph.D. Comprehensive Examinations

Comprehensive exams are aimed to evaluate the a student’s mastery of a chosen subfield. Satisfactory completion of these examinations is required for the satisfactory completion of Ph.D. candidacy.

We expect students to have taken and passed all their comprehensive exams after their fifth semester in the Ph.D. program. We schedule both the first field (major) and the second field (minor) exams in January. Before the exams, students must first register for three comprehensive exam credits to prepare for the exams (typically in the Fall semester). In the Spring semester, students must register for another three credits of comprehensive exams. While students normally complete exams in January, faculty complete grading in the Spring semester when students will receive three of the six credits.

While the comprehensive exams must normally be taken in January, a student may request to take the exams in May instead of in January with justifiable reasons. Such a request must be submitted to the Director of Graduate Studies before the end of the fall semester. However, approval is not guaranteed.

The Director of Graduate Studies will form comprehensive examination committees that will have the responsibility to construct and grade the examinations. The comprehensive examination committee will consist of three graduate faculty members qualified to read the examinations. The form of the exam is an open‐book, take‐home examination that the student has three days to complete. Students who do not return the examination will automatically fail the examination. Committee members will read the examinations and assign a grade of 1-5 for each essay answer. The grades from each committee member will be averaged to give an overall score for the examination. The overall scores from each committee member will then be averaged to give the student their final grade. Students must achieve a 3.0 average across the committee members to pass the examination.

Examination scores that are significantly disparate among the committee members in the view of the Director of Graduate Studies may be subject to review by a fourth faculty member. In such instances, the fourth faculty member’s scores will be averaged with the three committee members’ scores, but the Director of Graduate studies will have the discretion to weigh all commentary from faculty members in deciding whether the student has passed the examination.

If a student fails a comprehensive examination, the student is subject to dismissal from the program. At the discretion of the Graduate Committee, the committee may authorize the student to retake the examination. If the committee grants permission for the student to take the examination again, and the student fails the examination a second time, the Graduate Director will dismiss the student from the program. The Graduate Director will notify the Graduate Committee of the decision to dismiss the student; however, approval of the Graduate Committee is not necessary and the decision cannot be appealed within the department.

A student may petition to change from a Ph.D. track to an MA track if they have completed 30 credits of coursework in the department (this can include 3 credits of comps).

Timeline to Ph.D. Degree Completion

Students who enroll full-time in the Ph.D. program are expected to complete their coursework and examination requirements in two and a half years (five regular semesters), and are expected to complete their dissertation within another two and a half to three and a half years (five to six years total). Upon passing their comprehensive exams, students must file the Doctoral Degree Admission to Candidacy with the Graduate School. Writing of the Ph.D. dissertation prospectus should occur once the student completes both comprehensive examinations. Students should normally defend their prospectus within six months after finishing both comprehensive exams. Writing of the prospectus can begin in the middle of the third year, and should be defended no later than the end of the third academic year.

By the rules of the Graduate School, all requirements for the Ph.D. must be completed within eight years of matriculation into the program. The Department of Political Science will neither request nor support extensions of that time. Students not meeting the eight-year degree completion requirement will be dismissed from the program.

Ph.D. Advisors and the Dissertation Committee

All students enrolled in graduate degree programs offered by the Department of Political Science must form a committee. The purpose of the committee in the Ph.D. program is to ensure that the student has advice on course selection and the degree-completion trajectory. The committee is crucial in completing the Ph.D. dissertation. By Graduate School rules, all Ph.D. programs require at least five advisory committee members. All members must be graduate faculty members, or approved by the Graduate School to sit on committees. One must be designated as the Graduate School Representative (also known as an outside committee member). This person will provide an external assurance that the rules established in the program and by the Graduate School have been followed successfully. Two members, including the Graduate School representative, must be from a department or program outside of the department or program from which the student is graduating. Formal approval of all student advisory committees is made by the Graduate Dean. All committee members must participate in the defense of the dissertation.

Based on the student’s interests in the program, an advisor is assigned to each student entering the program. This advisor is the student’s point of contact to begin receiving advice about course selections and program requirements in their first semester. The initial advisor form allows the department to inform the Graduate School that the student has an advisor who is actively assisting them and that they are engaged in a structured program that will meet both departmental and Graduate School requirements.

Students should see their advisor once per semester to make sure they are on track, know course availability, and are aware of any programmatic changes. Students will have annual meetings with the Director of Graduate Studies.

Ph.D. Program of Study

The student’s Ph.D. committee is formed when the student completes the Program of Study form. Each student in the Ph.D. program must complete a Program of Study form by the end of their third semester. The Program of Study serves as the guide to completing the degree. The form is available on the Graduate School webpages. It is important to note that the Program of Study can be amended to accommodate changes in coursework. Thus, the Program of Study is not “written in stone,” but rather provides an anticipated path to degree completion to inform the department and the Graduate School.