The
Graduate Program
Handbook
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| Section 4. The Ph.D.
Program |
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4.1 Course Requirements
The PhD program, which is only for students who enter UCSB with an MA in English or a closely related field from another institution, requires 24 units of graduate coursework (4 units per course), all of which must be taken for a letter grade. No credit for graduate courses can be transferred from other institutions (though courses taken elsewhere may count toward the distribution requirement [see below]). Students in the PhD program have the option of taking their first qualifying exam either at the end of their third or fourth quarter in the program. In the former instance, at least 12 units must be completed before the exam; in the latter instance, at least sixteen units must be completed before the exam. It is university policy that graduate students enroll for at least twelve units per quarter. Since students in the PhD program normally take only one or two courses per quarter to fulfill program requirements, additional units of Engl. 597 or 599, which require no formal work, must be added to bring total units up to 12 (see Sections 5.5, 5.6). Students are, of course, welcome to take more than the required six courses, whether for a letter grade or pass/no pass. Indeed, in the PhD program, which requires relatively few courses, it may well be in the interest of most students to go beyond that minimal requirement as a way both of profiting more fully from the resources of UCSB and of better preparing for dissertation work, the job market, and a career in literary study. |
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4.2 Distribution
Requirement
Students in the PhD program have two years to fulfill an individually tailored version of the MA/PhD distribution requirement described in Section 3.2. Courses taken for a grade at the student's MA institution count toward the requirement (but not toward the 24 units needed to complete the program) if the following arrangement is made: in an individual meeting with the Graduate Adviser during orientation week, students in the PhD program use their MA transcript to negotiate a "contract" for fulfilling the distribution requirement. For example, a student who earned grades in graduate-level "Shakespeare" and "Wordsworth" courses at their MA institution could be excused from having to take courses in Areas I and II. Such a student would then need to elect only three courses to complete the distribution requirement, one each in Areas III, IV, and V. (However, all students must take a course from our faculty in Area V even if they have taken theory previously. It is advisable to elect at least one such course as early as possible.)
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4.3 Normal
Progress for the Ph.D. Program
The PhD program normally takes four years. Students in this program have the option of taking the first qualifying examination at the end of either their third or fourth quarter of residence. The second qualifying examination must then be taken no later than the seventh quarter. (University policy mandates that all graduate students advance to candidacy by the close of their fourth year. However, normal progress in the English program requires advancement at the beginning of the third year for students entering with the MA). In addition, students must satisfy the foreign language requirement as set forth in Section 7. It is the responsibility of students to ensure that they continue making normal progress in the program—i.e., to complete courses, fulfill language requirements, and pass the first and second qualifying exams in timely fashion. There is enough leeway in the program to allow for some flexibility when there is evidence of promise in a student's record and when the department has sufficient funding, but students should realize that satisfactory progress toward the degree is usually a precondition of assignment to teaching assistantships. The following two schemes show how the requirements of the PhD program might be arranged in the four-year schedule (other schemes are possible; many PhD students take more than the minimum requirement of courses as dictated by their interests):
| Normal Progress for the PhD Program, Two Possible Schemes: |
| Year |
Fall |
Winter |
Spring |
| 1 |
2 Graduate Seminars |
1 Graduate Seminar |
First Qualifying Exam
Language Exam |
| 2 |
2 Graduate Seminars
Doctoral Colloquium
Language Exam |
1 Graduate Seminar
Doctoral Colloquium |
Writing Program Training Course (501A)
Doctoral Colloquium |
| 3 |
Submit Dissertation Prospectus
Second Qualifying Exam
Writing Program Training Course (501B) |
Dissertation Begun |
Dissertation Work |
| 4 |
Dissertation Work |
Dissertation Work |
Dissertation Filed |
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| Year |
Fall |
Winter |
Spring |
| 1 |
2 Graduate Seminars |
1 Graduate Seminar |
1 Graduate Seminar
Language Exam |
| 2 |
First Qualifying Exam
Doctoral Colloquium
Language Exam |
2 Graduate Seminars
Doctoral Colloquium |
Writing Program Training Course (501A)
Doctoral Colloquium |
| 3 |
Submit Dissertation Prospectus
Second Qualifying Exam
Writing Program Training Course (501B) |
Dissertation Begun |
Dissertation Work |
| 4 |
Dissertation Work |
Dissertation Work |
Dissertation Filed |
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