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Degree Programs

Ph.D. Program

The Ph.D Program

Students who complete the Ph.D. program should have a thorough understanding of the principles of economic theory and its applications in agriculture, along with an ability to think systematically about, and apply quantitative methods to, agricultural economic problems. The program gives equal emphasis to formal courses, examinations and the dissertation. Students typically spend their two semesters in course work, taking the general and filed qualified examinations in the third semester. The forth semester is for dissertation proposal defense. The next year is used to prepare their dissertations and defense their dissertation at the sixth semester.

Degree Requirements

Ph.D. Core Curriculum: all Ph.D. students are required to complete the core courses in the following fields in the first two semesters.
        a.       Economic Theory
        b.       Econometric
        c.       Agricultural Economics
        d.       Agricultural Management
        e.       Research Minor

Qualified Examinations: after completing the core course work, all Ph.D. students are required to take the qualified examination at the end of the second semester or the beginning of the third semester. The qualified exams include several topics. Here is a list of the reference books:

a.       “Principle of Economics”, Mankwin, 2003

b.       “Development Economics”, Ray, 2002

c.       “Introductory Econometrics: A modern approach”, JeffreyM.Wooldridge.

d.       Sociology

1)       Sociology (4th edition), Giddens,Anthony, 2001. Polity Press and Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

2)       The Practice of Social Research (8thed), Babbie, Earl, 1998. Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Field Examination:

Field exam is taken after the qualified examinations. The dissertation committee will give questions for the exam and decide the criteria of passing the exam.

Ph.D. Candidacy
All students must pass the Ph.D. candidacy inspection at the beginning of the third or fourth semester. The inspection includes:
a.       The student must achieve the language level required by the university for Ph.D. students.
b.       The student must get the credits of the cultivation scheme required.
c.       Ideological morality: No illegal or undisciplined behaviors obey to social ethics, participate in-group activities.
d.       The student passes the general examination and the field examination.

   Proposal Oral Defense
After the students gain their Ph.D. candidacy, they are required to prepare the dissertation proposal. The dissertation committee will hold an oral defense for all Ph.D. candidates. A qualified proposal must show the committee the following points:
       a.       Objectives of the thesis
       b.       Literature Review
       c.       Innovations of the thesis
       d.       Methodology
       e.       Time schedule and expected Results
Research committee will vote to pass the student or not. A pass will be given only and if only the students receives 2/3 or higher votes of the committee. The student who fails the oral presentation must re-defend a revised proposal in 6 months.

Dissertation defense: the consequence of completing the dissertation is paper submissionà anonymous commentsàpaper revisionàthesis pre-defenseàthesis defense.
      a.       Paper submission: after students submit the drafts of the dissertations to their committees, graduate school will randomly select several dissertations and hold an anonymous evaluation to investigate the qualification of the selected dissertations. The date of the evaluation varies but normally it starts around mid-April for summer graduation and mid-November for winter graduation. The colleges will hold the evaluation for students who are not selected by the graduate school.
      b.       Anonymous comments: The college will randomly select five to seven professors or higher qualified experts with certain standards from the Anonymous Experts Database, among whom more than two of them are from other universities, to comment on the dissertations. If over 1/3 experts (does not include 1/3) agree that a dissertation fails to meet relevant academic criteria, the dissertation defense will be postponed till the next semester.
      c.       Paper revision: After the anonymous evaluation completed, the department will send the comments back to the Ph.D. candidate, and the candidate should edit the dissertation selectively according to the comments.
      d.       Table 1 is the time schedule for paper submission (the schedule could be adjusted according to the actual need).

Table 1. Time Table of Ph.D. Dissertation Defense

Time/Events

Paper submission to dissertation committee

Pre-Defense

Paper submission to college

Anonymously comments

Dissertation defense

Winter Graduation

Beginning of April

Decided by the committee

By May 8th

May 10-20

May 21-31

Summer Graduation

Beginning of November

Decided by the committee

By December 8th

December 10-20

December 21-31

Note: Students attending the thesis defense should submit seven copies of the thesis to the college without information about the author or advisor on cover or in content. Students who miss the deadlines are automatically considered as giving up the dissertation defense in the current semester.

Final editing of dissertation:
Students who passed the defense should revise their dissertation according to the regulations of graduate college.

Final editing of dissertation
Students who passed the defense should revise their dissertation according to the regulations of graduate college.