Guide to Graduate Study
Department of Political Science
The
The Department of Political Science offers a comprehensive program leading to the degrees of Master of Arts, Master of Public Administration, and Doctor of Philosophy. The MPA program is administered separately, and information about the program can be found at http://poli.uno.edu/MPA/MPA.htm. The graduate program is designed to prepare professional political scientists for careers in research and teaching, government, and public service. Many students currently enrolled are pursuing a degree on a full- time basis; others are working on degrees part-time while engaging in careers with a variety of governmental, private, and educational agencies.
The Department is authorized for 12 full-time faculty members. Currently, in the post-Katrina period, the Department has six tenure-track faculty, and four non-tenure-track faculty. We anticipate building up to and hopefully beyond our authorized size in the near future. Information about each faculty member can be found online at our Department website. A favorable student-faculty ratio allows students to work closely with faculty members on a collaborative basis and to develop individual plans of study. Four to six graduate seminars, enrolling between five to fifteen students, are offered every fall and spring semester. This number will rise as the Department rebuilds from Katrina.
Admission
to Graduate Study
Application forms for admission to
graduate study in political science are available from the UNO Admissions
Office and the
All applicants, M.A. and Ph.D., should
forward the following records directly to the Office of Admissions,
· The Graduate School Application for Admission (Online at
http://admissions.uno.edu/app.cfm).
· An official transcript from every college attended.
· Graduate Record Examination (GRE) general
test scores.
· Test of English as a Foreign Language
(TOEFL) scores for students from non-English speaking countries without a
previous degree from an American university.
In addition, the following items should be sent to the Department
of Political Science, Graduate Coordinator:
· The Department of Political Science’s Personal Information
Sheet (http://poli.uno.edu/forms/graduateforms/pds.pdf.),
and
· Three letters of recommendation from people familiar with the applicant’s previous academic performance (Ph.D. program and graduate assistantship applicants only).
Tuition
Tuition at UNO is currently $1646 per
semester for
Financial
Assistance
Competitive, renewable graduate assistantships are available each year for both M.A. and Ph.D. students from the Department of Political Science. Stipend levels for 2007-2008 are $12,000 plus a waiver of tuition. This award is renewable for up to four years, contingent upon normal progress through the program. The Department also may nominate students for tuition and other awards given by The Graduate School. These include the Marcus Christian Fellowships for African American students in the Ph.D. program, the Graduate Dean’s and Crescent City Doctoral Tuition Scholarships for M.A. and Ph.D. students, and the SREB/BoR Doctoral Diversity Fellowship.
Students wishing to apply for graduate assistantships should indicate this on the Political Science Personal Information Sheet. Information about student loan programs is available from the Office of Student Financial Aid (online at http://finaid.uno.edu/) Students requesting graduate assistantships should have all materials forwarded to the Department of Political Science by February 14.
Graduate assistants serve as research or teaching
assistants. Ph.D. students may be assigned to teach undergraduate courses, such
as American Government, Introduction to Comparative Government, and
Introduction to World Politics. Occasionally political science graduate
students obtain assistantships with other units of the university, such as the
UNO Poll,
The Graduate School.
The M.A. Program
The Masters of Arts program provides each student with the flexibility to develop a plan of study suitable to their own interests, needs, and career goals. Political Science M.A. graduates have been successful in a variety of pursuits, including careers in public service at the federal, state, and local levels. Others have gone on to pursue doctoral degrees at UNO and at institutions such as California-Berkeley, Duke, Florida State, Howard, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts/Amherst, Michigan, North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Northwestern, Tennessee, Texas A&M, and Washington University.
Degree Requirements
There are two tracks in the Masters program: thesis and non-thesis. The thesis track requires 33 hours, and the non-thesis track 36 hours. No more than 9 hours in courses numbered below 6000 and no more than 6 hours of thesis research may be counted toward these minimum requirements. Up to six credit hours may be taken in related departments, with permission of the Department. All students are required to demonstrate competence in statistics. The statistics requirement may be satisfied either by completing Political Science 6001 and 6002 with a grade of “B” or better or by passing a departmental examination in statistics.
Students who take thesis research must write a thesis that demonstrates an appropriate level of skill in research and writing in an accepted field of political science. The thesis is directed by a member of the Department and defended before a committee consisting of three faculty members, all of whom must be members of the Department. The committee will decide by majority vote whether the thesis is acceptable. Students writing a thesis must have a prospectus approved by the committee prior to writing the thesis, and defend the thesis upon its completion. A Masters defense may be repeated once.
A student taking the non-thesis degree option must pass a written comprehensive examination prepared by a committee consisting of three members of the Department. The examination shall be held during a single day (six hours maximum). Students are not allowed any notes or materials when taking this examination. The committee also may require an additional oral defense of the examination. A majority vote determines whether the student has passed or failed the comprehensive examination, and it may be repeated once.
The Ph.D. Program
The Doctor of Philosophy is the
highest degree offered by the
· Comparative Politics
· International Relations
Ph.D. candidates must select three concentrations which may
consist of either of the following combinations: 1) a major in US Politics with
at least two subfields, and either Comparative Politics or International
Relations as a third field; or 2) all three fields with either Comparative
Politics or International Relations as a major, and minors selected from the
remaining fields.
Qualifying Examination
The Ph.D. qualifying examination is a university
requirement to determine the capability of a student to work toward the Ph.D.
degree. The Department of Political Science views the qualifying examination as
having three purposes:
1) To assess analytical skills and potential for further graduate study,
2) To assess graduate work taken at other institutions, and
3) To guide the development of an academic program of courses leading toward the general examination.
While all three goals are elements of the committee’s assessment, the Department emphasizes that this exam is intended to guide students toward further steps in the program.
The qualifying examination is oral, and may be taken the semester following the completion of 9 credit hours in the Ph.D. program. It must be taken no later than the semester following the completion of 15 credit hours. Students with an M.A. in political science from UNO, however, may take the qualifying examination during their first semester in the Ph.D. program, and they must take the examination no later than the semester following the completion of 15 credit hours. All students are encouraged to take this exam at the earliest feasible time, to facilitate preparation for the comprehensive exams. Qualifying exams will be administered during the third week preceding the end of classes in the fall and spring semesters. The student must submit a research design or other analytic paper to the examining committee at least two weeks before the exam.
The qualifying examination committee consists of three faculty members from the Department of Political Science appointed by the Chair of the Department. There must be at least one faculty member from each of the areas of concentration selected by the student. Passage of this examination requires a unanimous vote of the committee, and it may be repeated once. Failure to pass the exam on the second attempt results in termination from the program.
Upon successful completion, the qualifying examination committee will identify the courses a student must complete for the remainder of his or her program of coursework. A student must complete a minimum of 60 graduate credit hours overall. Included in this must be at least 12 credit hours in one of the areas of concentration, and at least 9 credit hours in each of the other areas of concentration, completion of the research methods sequence of POLI 6001, 6002, and 6003 with grades of “B” or better, and 6 credit hours of dissertation research. Work taken toward a Masters degree may be counted for this purpose, but at least 30 hours must be completed as a Ph.D. student.
Residency Requirements
A doctoral student must earn four semesters of full-time residence. Full-time is considered to be nine credit hours during the academic year and six credit hours in a summer term. All students must be enrolled at UNO in at least six credit hours for at least two consecutive semesters. The remainder of the residency requirement may be satisfied by part-time enrollment until the equivalent of four full-time semesters is met. The following formula is used to compute residency requirements: six to eight credit hours count as one half a full-time semester; three to five credit hours is one-fourth of a full-time semester; less than three credit hours does not count toward the residency requirement. Transfer credit from other institutions may be accepted in partial fulfillment of the residency requirement if approved by the Department and the Dean of The Graduate School.
Research Tool Requirement
Before students can take the General Examination they must demonstrate competence in research methods by passing POLI 6001, 6002, and 6003 (or their equivalents) with a grade of “B” or better.
General Examination
The general examination committee consists of three faculty members appointed by the Chair of the Department. All must be faculty of the Department of Political Science. There must be at least one Department faculty member from each of the student’s areas of concentration. The chair of the committee must be a member of the Department of Political Science.
The general examination consists of two written examinations followed by an oral defense. It is administered after the completion of all course work and certification of competency in research tools. Students are examined in their major and first minor fields. Students with majors in US Politics will be examined only in the subfields covered by their course work. Completion of third fields is demonstrated by course work. Students may have up to seven hours to complete each written examination. These examinations are held during the last two full weeks of September or the first two full weeks of February. The Department will determine specific dates. It is the student’s responsibility to consult early with their general examination committee about readings and the structure of the exam. The general exam will be taken without access to books, notes, or other materials.
The oral examination must be taken during the week following the last written examination. Immediately after the oral examination, the general examination committee will decide whether a student has passed. If this examination is failed, it may be retaken once. If the committee concludes that a student has demonstrated competency in one or more fields on the first examination, the retaken examination(s) may be limited to the remaining fields at the next time general examinations are offered. Competency must be demonstrated in all fields for a pass on the first examination. If a student has not defended his or her dissertation within five years after passing the general examination, it must be retaken.
Dissertation
Once the
general examination is completed, students must form a dissertation committee.
The dissertation committee must be approved by the Chair of the Department. It
may consist of either three members of the Department, or five faculty, four of
whom must be members of the Department and one of whom may be from another
department. Students must then prepare and submit a prospectus of the
dissertation to the committee, which is defended in a committee meeting. Prospectuses are normally 30 to 60
pages in length. The Department expects that the prospectus defense will be
successfully completed within six months of the completion of the comprehensive
examinations, in order for the student to be considered to be making normal
progress through the program. Failure to do so must be explained in writing to
the Graduate Committee. The Graduate Committee may then decide to terminate any
departmental funding received by the student.
A student’s dissertation research is guided and evaluated by the dissertation committee. Once the dissertation is completed, the dissertation defense is held. It is an open meeting. For five-person committees, at least four members of this committee must approve the dissertation for this examination to be passed. For three-person committees, all members must approve the dissertation. This examination may be repeated once. Upon completion of the dissertation defense, the student is awarded the Ph.D.