Requirements
The minimum number of total required credits for the Ph.D. program is 51. Up to 12 credits may be transferred from the student's Master's degree provided the committee determines that these credits meet program requirements. Ordinarily courses taken elsewhere may not be used to meet the Development Studies course requirement. Each Program of Study will differ, yet coursework should fit the following guidelines:
- Interdisciplinary seminar: minimum of 3 credits
- Major discipline: minimum of 24 credits that include:
- 3 credits minimum of theory
- 9 credits minimum of methods (must be taken from the department(s) of the major discipline or from course offerings in the Department of Statistics)
- 12 credits minimum of other relevant courses in the major discipline (6 must be from Development Studies courses)
- Secondary discipline: minimum of 9 credits (3 must be from Development Studies courses)
- Tertiary areas: minimum of 9 credits
- Dissertation research: minimum of 6 credits
Both the major discipline and the secondary discipline are
expected to be in the social sciences. In most instances,
students will select from among sociology, economics, geography, anthropology,
communication, political science, education, or urban and regional
planning as their primary and secondary disciplines. Secondary disciplines
may also include areas such as law, history, and public affairs.
At least one development studies course in the discipline of
economics and one development studies course in the discipline of sociology
must be completed by all students. Courses in the Departments
of Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics, Consumer Science and
economics courses in the School of Business fulfill the economics discipline,
while courses in the departments of Sociology and Community and Environmental Sociology fulfill
the sociology discipline. Development studies courses are social science
graduate-level courses in which the majority of course content pertains
specifically to international development. The Development Studies Instructional
Committee will revise this list annually and make appropriate additions
and deletions. All development studies courses must have been taken
on an A-F basis at UW-Madison and be passed with a grade of B or higher.
"Topics" courses may be taken as development
studies core courses by permission of the student's committee and the
Instructional Committee. Some examples of such topics courses are included
below. Also, note that this list is highly provisional. In particular,
there are likely to be some 400-, 500-, and 600-level courses with largely
undergraduate clientele that would not be appropriate for Development
Studies graduate students. There are also no doubt a number of courses
unknown to us that should be added to the list. At this time we do not
see a need to identify development studies core courses for the tertiary
areas, or to require that one or more development studies courses be
taken in the tertiary areas.
Courses in the tertiary areas may be in a social science
discipline, a coherent set of area studies courses, or a coherent set
of courses outside of the social sciences. Natural-science tertiary
areas/disciplines (e.g., plant science, ecology, tropical agriculture)
or interdisciplinary social science areas/disciplines (technology assessment,
urban studies) are permitted and encouraged. Tertiary areas/disciplines
that do not correspond to current Graduate School programs of study
are permitted if they are coherent and well justified.
Language requirements ranging from minimal competency
to fluency in a non-native language will vary for each student depending
on area of interest. Students are required to have or acquire language
competency to complete their dissertation fieldwork