Degree of Doctor of Philosophy: Four-year Program
Students are expected to acquire a broad competence in both History and Contemporary Problems of Philosophy and to develop an area of specialization prior to undertaking formal research for a doctoral thesis. Each incoming PhD student is assigned an Advisor, who will recommend a suitable program of philosophy courses and will be responsible for overseeing the student’s progress until the student has constituted an Area Committee.
The Area Committee assists in defining an area of specialized research within which the student intends to write a thesis. The Area Committee also approves a plan for carrying out the research for this area and ultimately determines, on the basis of an Oral Exam, whether the candidate has met the Area Requirement and can now proceed to the stage of formal research for the thesis.
Once approved to do so, the candidate must constitute a PhD Thesis Committee, which comprises a supervisor and two consultants (or readers). The candidate remains under the guidance of the Thesis Committee up to the Oral Defence of the finished thesis. Area Committees and Thesis Committees are required to provide regular annual reports of progress made by their students.
The following links summarize our policies and requirements for the five-year PhD program. For a detailed and exhaustive statement of policies and requirements, see here.
