Political Science

A student must successfully complete twelve (48 units) of the sixteen courses required for the doctorate with an average grade of 3.0 or better. All courses used to meet degree requirements must be taken for a letter grade.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

The master's comprehensive examination consists of the submission of one doctoral qualifying paper that is deemed acceptable by three faculty members chosen by the appropriate field chair to represent the field to which the paper was submitted.

Thesis Plan

None.

Time-to-Degree

MAXIMUM TTD

Advising

Students are assigned a first year adviser when they enter the graduate program, and are expected to regularly consult with the adviser. Students may change advisers whenever they wish using a Change of Program Adviser form.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Six fields of study are offered: political theory; international relations; American politics; comparative politics; formal theory and quantitative methods; and race, ethnicity, and politics.

Foreign Language Requirement

Prior to advancement to candidacy students must fulfill either Requirement A (Foreign Language Requirement) or Requirement B (Research Methodology Requirement):

Students are required to pass the foreign language or research methodology requirement before they are advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D., but may pass the requirement after the University Oral Qualifying Examination.

Course Requirements

Students must take Political Science 292A, four courses in each of two major fields, two courses in the student's minor field, and four additional graded courses, including no more than two independent study courses. These courses must include two two-quarter field seminars, one of which should be in the student’s major field. Fields determine which courses meet major and minor field requirements. All courses used to meet degree requirements must be taken for a letter grade.

Of these 16 required courses, students must take at least seven during their first year of graduate study and 12 by the end of their second year.

With the approval of the graduate adviser (and the Graduate Division for the master's degree requirements), graduate courses in political science taken elsewhere may be applied toward departmental course requirements. The maximum number of such courses is six if students come to UCLA with a master's degree in political science and choose to forego another master's degree from UCLA. In all other cases, the maximum is four for courses taken at another UC campus and two for courses taken outside the UC system.

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.

Qualifying Paper Requirement. Students must submit one qualifying paper in order to qualify for advancement to candidacy. This paper is assigned to two or more faculty graders by the Graduate Studies Committee. Papers are graded qualified with distinction, qualified, or not qualified. If a paper is graded "not qualified," students may submit a revised version or another paper, once only. If a resubmitted research paper is graded "not qualified," the student is evaluated for academic disqualification by a committee of at least five members drawn mostly from the student's primary field. The qualifying paper is due by the beginning of the second week of the eighth quarter in the graduate program. If it is graded “not qualified” on initial submission, it may be revised and resubmitted by the beginning of the tenth week of the ninth quarter.

Papers are evaluated for knowledge of subject, originality of ideas, and craftsmanship of research. They are also evaluated for conciseness; good papers may vary in length but are not expected to exceed 40 pages, including notes, figures, and tables. Papers need not be publishable, but in their structure and format and in their coverage of topics and tasks are expected to resemble papers published in peer-reviewed journals of their fields.

Preliminary Field Exam. Students must pass a written preliminary exam in their major field by the end of their fifth quarter in the graduate program. If they do not pass the exam, they may have a single opportunity to retake it no later than the end of their sixth quarter in the graduate program.

University Oral Qualifying Exam. Students may take the University Oral Qualifying Examination after they have completed their courses, exam, and paper requirements and written a dissertation proposal accepted by their research adviser. Students must take this examination no later than their twelfth quarter of graduate study, and the examination committee must have the proposal at least two weeks before the examination. The examination committee judges the feasibility and worth of the project and the student's ability to undertake it. The committee also may recommend changes in the research design.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree 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 the 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

Normative time to degree for the Ph.D. degree is 18 quarters.

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 (3.0) 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 3.0) 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

Upon releasing the grade of the qualifying paper, the faculty graders provide students with a written assessment of the paper’s strengths and weaknesses. A student may appeal a "not qualified" grade on a research paper submission. Substantive appeals go to the original graders and one or more additional readers. Their decision either reaffirms the original grade or changes the grade. The Graduate Studies Committee only considers appeals that are based on procedural or other concerns and not appeals based on academic quality. All appeals must be filed no later than two weeks after the grade was received.

Students who receive a “not qualified” grade on a resubmitted research paper, whose grade-point average falls below 3.4 for more than two quarters, who postpone submission or resubmission of the research paper for more than two quarters, who do not pass the qualifying field exam in their major field by the end of their sixth quarter, who fail to complete 12 graded courses by the beginning of the seventh quarter, or who fail to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination by the end of the eighteenth quarter, may be recommended for academic disqualification. Recommendation for academic disqualification evaluations are made by a field evaluation committee of at least five members and are based on the student's entire record in the graduate program. Final decisions to recommend academic disqualification are made by the Graduate Studies Committee after reviewing the field committee's recommendation. Academic disqualification may be recommended with all the supporting documentation including field evaluations, graduate appeal, Graduate Studies Committee report and a letter from the Department Chair to Graduate Division.

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