Ph.D. Curriculum

The Payson Center firmly believes that a competent international development professional must have strong skills in research methodology, applied quantitative and statistical methods for the social sciences, and information technology for development. Thus all of these subjects are strongly emphasized in the doctoral curriculum.

Doctoral candidates have a variety of fields and courses to choose from depending on their special interest and focus. The Tulane doctoral program makes a special effort to allow students to tailor the electives to meet their own learning and professional needs. Thus independent study with a professor based on curricula developed to meet a particular need has become popular in the program.

The minimum course credit requirement for the doctoral program is 48 credit hours. Twenty-one of these credits must come from the core courses and the remaining 27 credits come from electives. Students can apply to transfer in up to 24 credit hours from previous graduate course work, subject to approval by the Executive Direction of the Payson Center and the Law School.

Uponfulfillment of the 48 credit hours, 18 of which must becompleted on the New Orleans campus, candidates are requiredto pass a comprehensive examination to demonstrate competencein all of their areas of study. A candidate who passesthe comprehensive exams will then be required to writeand defend a dissertation prospectus. Upon successful defenseof the doctoral prospectus, students will enter into thefinal part of the program which is research and preparationof a dissertation. Students must write and successfullydefend their dissertation to their doctoral committee beforecompleting the program. In addition, students are requiredto demonstrate proficiency in a language other than Englishprior to graduation. Proficiency is determined by an oralexam given by a faculty or staff member trained for suchpurpose and/or certified by the American Council on theTeaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).

1) All students are required to take the following core courses (21 credit hours):

IDEV 610 Introduction to Applied Economic Analysis (3)

IDEV 611 Introduction to Quantitative Analysis I (3)

IDEV 612 Introduction to Research Methods (3)

IDEV 613 Advanced/Intermediate Quantitative Analysis (3)

IDEV 650 Learning How to Learn with Technology (3)

IDEV 660 Information Technology for Development (3)

IDEV 667 International Political and Economic Relations (3)

IDEV 690/691 Sustainable Human Development (3)

2) Students will also be required to take one additional course from the following list (3 credit hours):

a) Research Methodology and Data Analysis Skills*

SOCI 702 Introduction to Graduate Statistics (3)

SOCI 704 Intermediate Sociological Methods (3)

SOCI 705 Design of Research Methods (3)

EPID 712 Intermediate Epidemiology (3)

EPID 626 Survey Methodology (3)

EPID 730 Advanced Epidemiology (3)

* Students may substitute other courses with similar skills and competencies with the approval of the Chair

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Ph.D. Curriculum