The guidance committee is to be established by the beginning of the second year and prior to starting course work in the area of concentration. The chair should have recognized expertise in the qualifying area and should be a regular participant in the qualifying examination committee for that area.
The majority of the members of the guidance committee (typically at least three of the five) should be experts in the area in which the student is qualifying and should be regular participants in that qualifying examination committee. The remaining members will have a clear interest in this area.
Students will formalize their relationship with their committees through the development of a contract which specifies all courses completed, date of screening decision, the area of concentration, and which courses will be taken and when, in order to prepare for the area section of the qualifying examination. This contract will be signed by the student, the members of the guidance committee and the faculty doctoral advisor. It will be filed in the doctoral office.
Ph.D. students are required to complete 32 units of 600 level or above course work (PUAD 700ab, 791ab, 675, 685, 691 and 695 plus three courses [12 units]: for an area of concentration) prior to the qualifying examination. In addition, students are required to complete four units of course work in statistics (PUAD 592).
Students will be expected to meet the requirements for their qualifying area during their second year in the program (including the summer subsequent to their second year). A field will be constituted by three or more doctoral level courses (seminars, either within the School of Public Administration or elsewhere at USC, and PUAD 790). A research apprenticeship in the area of specialization will also be required in addition to course work. The faculty has specified a fixed set of areas in which students can qualify.
In cases of nonstandardized language examinations, the student's guidance committee will give specific approval for the language and for the method of testing. The testing method approved by the guidance committee must approximate the level of attainment required for successful completion of GSFLT examinations.
The apprenticeship requirement will be a minimum of one academic year of work involving a minimum of three hours per week. Since students will enter the program with varying experience and skills in research, the apprenticeship will be broadly construed to include library research, data entry, assistance with grant proposal preparation and work on publications in progress. Students will be required to keep a log of their work with full entries concerning the type and amount of work accomplished each week.
Evidence of successful completion of the research requirement will consist of a descriptive and evaluative statement of the student's research responsibilities and activities, signed by both student and advisor, and the work log.
The requirement will be a minimum of one academic year of work involving a minimum of three hours per week. Students will be expected to sit in on some, but not all, sessions of a specific class taught by the faculty member with whom they are working. They should also meet regularly with this faculty member to discuss how he or she developed the design for the course, the preparation of lectures and teaching plans, the grading process and other elements of the teaching process. The faculty member may assign the student responsibility for one or two class sessions, or portions of sessions, with an evaluative discussion to follow. The student may also be assigned to assist with the preparation for specific classroom exercises. Students will be required to keep a log of their work with full entries concerning the type and amount of work accomplished each week.
Evidence of successful completion of the teaching requirement will consist of a descriptive and evaluative statement of the student's work and activities, signed by both student and advisor, and the work log.
The first part is the core examination. This examination will be collaboratively designed by the instructors of the four core courses and oriented toward testing students' ability to integrate material from these courses. With PUAD 691 as part of the core, a portion of this examination will focus on methodological issues. The examination will be administered during two full-day sessions.
The second part is the area examination. Each of the six area examinations will be collaboratively designed by the relevant qualifying area committee to test the student's competence in his or her qualifying area (depth, breadth, integrative and analytical capabilities). The examination will be administered during one full-day session.
The qualifying examination will be held in September every year, with the expectation that students will take it at the beginning of their third year in the program. The two components of the examination must be taken concurrently. The student must be adequately prepared to take both components, rather than taking the core examination one year and the area examination the next year. Both examinations will be administered during a one-week period.
Since the results of the examination will not be known before the deadline to register for classes in August, students should register for PUAD 794a Doctoral Dissertation. Any student not passing the examination would then drop PUAD 794a and prepare to retake the examination.
The process of grading examinations will be accomplished in two ways. For the core section examination, the process will be centralized by having the grading done by a committee comprising the four core course instructors plus the doctoral advisor. For the area examinations, responsibility for the grading will stay with the guidance committee. Oral examinations will be required only for the area examination. The core section of the examination will be evaluated entirely on the written work. Upon passing both the core and area portions of the examination, the student will be expected to reduce the guidance committee to a dissertation committee. See General Requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree.
The specification of required courses to fulfill each of these areas of specialization will be the responsibility of each qualifying area committee of the faculty. These may include seminars offered within the School of Public Administration if there is a sufficient number of students specializing in a given area to make such a course viable. Otherwise, courses may be identified in other departments of the university which would be appropriate, and PUAD 790 may be designed to serve this purpose.
Produced by the USC Division of Student Affairs, Office of University Publications, May 1, 1995