Special Education, Ph.D.

degree requirements

A minimum of 96 semester hours of graduate work beyond the baccalaureate or 64 semester hours beyond the master degree is required for a doctoral degree. The plan of study for each student is prepared in consultation with, and must be approved by, the faculty advisor assigned in the student's area of specialization. All students are required to complete the core curriculum, appropriate work in the areas of specialization, a research project, and a doctoral dissertation. Each of these requirements is described below.

A. Core Curriculum (16 semester hours)

The core curriculum introduces students to issues in the conduct of educational research and begins the process of building methodological skills. The courses are:

1. ED 500 --Philosophical Foundations of Educational Inquiry

2. ED 501 --Data & Interpretation in Educational Inquiry

3. ED 502 --Essentials of Qualitative Inquiry in Education

4. ED 503/EPSY 503 --Essentials of Quantitative Inquiry in Education
(Students may register under the ED or EPSY rubric.)

B. Area of Concentration (24 semester hours if student has a master's degree, 56 without)

Required courses in the area of concentration include SPED 564, Proseminar in Special Education, and three research seminars (i.e., SPED 592, Seminar on Theory and Research in Special Education). Students may take their remaining courses within the Special Education Area, in other Areas of the College of Education, or in other departments of the university (e.g., Anthropology, Disability Studies, Psychology, Public Policy, Sociology, and Women's Studies). Students can also take courses toward their degree at member universities of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC). This includes all Big Ten universities (including Northwestern University) and the University of Chicago. Students pay UIC tuition rates for courses taken at these institutions. Such courses must be arranged through consultation with a faculty advisor and appropriate personnel at the cooperating institution.

C. Research Project (8 semester hours)

All students in the doctoral program work on a research project in collaboration with a faculty member or a team of faculty members and students. Projects will focus on actual research problems in the student's area of concentration. Each student will make a formal presentation, oral and/or written, of the project findings.

D. Preliminary Examination

The preliminary examination is taken upon completion of all required course work. It consists of two parts. The comprehensive written portion is based on the student's course work. The oral portion is based upon the student's written dissertation proposal and is presented to a faculty committee.

E. Dissertation (16 semester hours)

A dissertation based on original research is required and must be defended before a faculty committee. The research must employ a theoretical framework and make use of the methods of inquiry appropriate to the problem being investigated.

In sum, a student's distribution of semester hour credits required for the doctoral degree will be as follows (these are minimum hours; students typically take more hours than the minimum):

	Minimum Hours with Masters	Minimum Hours without Masters
Core Curriculum	16	16
Specialization Requirement	24	56
Research Project	8	8
Dissertation	16	16

Total	64	96

For further information regarding degree requirements, contact the Graduate Admissions Officer in the Office of Student Services at 312-996-4536, and consult the Graduate Catalog.