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Home » Programs and Courses for Students » Graduate » Ph.D. (ID) » 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. However, a minimum of 24 credit hours must be completed in Tulane’s Ph.D. program.
Upon fulfillment of the 48 credit hours, 18 of which must be completed on the New Orleans campus (online courses do not fulfill residency), candidates are required to pass a comprehensive examination to demonstrate competence in all of their areas of study. A candidate who passes the comprehensive exams will then be required to write and defend a dissertation prospectus. Upon successful defense of the doctoral prospectus, students will enter into the final part of the program which is research and preparation of a dissertation. Students must write and successfully defend their dissertation to their doctoral committee before completing the program. In addition, students are required to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English prior to graduation. Proficiency is determined by an oral exam given by a faculty or staff member trained for such purpose and/or certified by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).
1) All students are required to take the following core courses (21 credit hours):
IDEV 6100 Introduction to Applied Economic Analysis (3)
IDEV 6110 Introduction to Quantitative Analysis I (3)
IDEV 6120 Introduction to Research Methods (3)
IDEV 6130 Advanced/Intermediate Quantitative Analysis (3)
IDEV 6500 Learning How to Learn with Technology (3)
or
IDEV 6600 Information Technology for Development (3)
IDEV 6640 Sustainable Human Development (3)
IDEV 6670 International Political and Economic Relations (3)
* Students may substitute other courses with similar skills and competencies with the approval of the Chair
