Doctoral Degree Requirements
Formal Requirements
The formal requirements for the Ph.D. degree are as follows:
1. payment of 6 semesters of full-time tuition (or five if transfer credit has been approved)
2. major and related courses
3. foreign language(s) in many departments
4. a supervisory committee for the student's program of study
5. continuous registration
6. preliminary examination
7. dissertation
8. final examination.
English Language Proficiency
All international Ph.D. students whose native language is not English must enroll in two sections of GS 200 during their initial year at Duke, unless formally waived from this requirement by the Graduate School upon certification of competency in English. For more information, see the English for International Students web site.
Residence
The minimum residence requirement is one academic year of full-time registration at Duke.
Time Limits
Ordinarily a student registered for full-time study should receive preliminary certification by the end of the third year. A student who has not been certified by this time must file with the Dean of the Graduate School a statement, approved by the Director of Graduate Studies in the major department, explaining the delay and setting a date for the examination. Except under unusual circumstances, extension will not be granted beyond the middle of the fourth year.
The time needed to prepare a dissertation in History varies widely. There are intellectual variables such as background preparation, availability of research materials, or the need for special language or computational skills, which combine with less scholarly but no less important considerations such as travel needs, finances, health, loved ones, and the political and economic state of the world to influence the dissertation research and writing process.
The Graduate School has a firm policy on unfinished dissertations, expecting completion in History within four calendar years after passage of the preliminary exam. If the dissertation has not been submitted within four years of the preliminary exam, a student must request a continuation extension. The Graduate school usually makes continuation decisions in mid-summer. If you are beyond the deadline, the DGS will contact you in the summer and ask for: 1) a detailed work plan and an expected date of completion; 2) a supporting letter from your advisor. The DGS will then write a recommendation and submit the materials to the Dean of the Graduate School . If this extension is granted and the dissertation is not submitted and accepted by the new deadline, a student's situation becomes precarious in the following ways: First, a student may be dropped from candidacy by the Graduate School , though petitions for further extensions are sometimes possible. Secondly, the Graduate School may require that a student must pass a second preliminary exam, as determined by the DGS, to be reinstated as a candidate for the degree. Thirdly, if more than five years elapse between the preliminary and final examinations, the Graduate School can require the department to submit to the Dean specific requirements for revalidating course credits.
Ordinarily, credit is not allowed for graduate courses (including transfers) or foreign language examinations that are more than six years old at the date of the preliminary examination. Similarly, credit will not be allowed for a preliminary examination that is five years old at the date of the final examination. In cases of exceptional merit, however, the Dean of the Graduate School may extend these limits. Should the five-year limits be exceeded, the student's department must submit to the Dean specific requirements for revalidating credits.