Educational Leadership Program

A program of study for an Ed.D. student is determined by the student and faculty adviser, and must meet division or program and department requirements. A minimum of 20 courses is required:

Course requirements may be substituted, under exceptional circumstances, by the program. Students submit a petition, endorsed by their adviser, to the division or program head. Whenever additional academic background is needed, the program head may require other course work.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

Doctoral Screening Examination. All students are required to take a written examination after the completion of appropriate course work determined by the division or the program. This examination is concerned with central topics in the selected division and field of emphasis or program. Questions are comprehensive in nature and are designed to measure the breadth and depth of knowledge, as well as to focus that knowledge on specific problems. The doctoral screening exam is normally taken in the Spring of their first year.

Students who take the doctoral screening examination ordinarily are not allowed to take more than nine courses before taking the examination. This limit is intended to ensure that students demonstrate basic competencies as early as possible in their doctoral training.

In a first sitting for this examination, students may receive a grade of Pass or Fail. Students who fail are given one additional opportunity to pass the examination. Students who have been allowed to retake the examination must do so at the beginning of Fall Quarter of the same calendar year that the examination was initially attempted. They are permitted to enroll in Fall courses with their cohort.

Doctoral Written Qualifying Examination. Students are required to take the doctoral written qualifying examination in June of their second year if they have met the following criteria: a B- or better in all required Educational Leadership Program courses; a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better; and no grades of "Incomplete" or "F" on their record. The take-home examination consists of two parts that reflect what students learned in years one and two.

Students who do not meet the grade criteria by the May examination period of the third year may be recommended for academic disqualification from the program or may petition the faculty for more time to improve their record in order to meet the grade criteria to sit for the examination. The examination is offered twice a year in the Fall and Spring terms.

Students may receive a grade of Pass or Fail. Students who fail the examination in June of the second year will be given a second opportunity to take the examination the following October (in the beginning of the third year). Students who re-take the examination will be assigned a faculty mentor to help them prepare for it.

Students who fail to successfully complete the examination a second time will be given the opportunity to take the examination a third time upon a two-thirds vote of the program faculty. With faculty approval, students will be assigned a faculty mentor to help them prepare to take the examination the following June. Students who do not receive faculty approval to take the examination a third time or who receive approval and fail the examination a third time will be recommended for academic disqualification to the Graduate Division.

University Oral Qualifying Examination. The oral examination is conducted by the student's doctoral committee, which selects topics from education that are related to the student's written dissertation proposal. On majority vote of the doctoral committee, the University Oral Qualifying Examination may be repeated once.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student's ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the doctoral committee.

Time-to-Degree

From admission to the doctoral program to the written and oral qualifying examinations: two years to two and one-half years (six to eight quarters).

For students in the Educational Leadership Program, a maximum of 15 quarters is permitted for completion of a doctoral degree.

MAXIMUM TTD

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A student may be recommended for academic disqualification either by the Committee on Degrees, Admissions and Standards, or by the faculty of a division or program. The student's adviser or the program head is given the opportunity to review and respond to a recommendation for academic disqualification from the Committee. In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification who fails a doctoral screening examination. A student may appeal a decision by the Committee to the Dean of the school.

UCLA is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and by numerous special agencies. Information regarding the University's accreditation may be obtained from the Office of Academic Planning and Budget, 2107 Murphy Hall.