Doctor of Education and Doctor of Philosophy (Secondary Education)

[Oct. 6, 2022] Please Note - EDITORIAL UPDATE. The word Department was replaced with the word Faculty on this page. Please see Amendments to the Calendar for more information.

Program Requirements

The EdD and PhD programs normally consist of a minimum of 21 units of graduate-level courses and the preparation and defense of a dissertation on an approved topic.

Required courses (6 units):

EDSE 610 - Advanced Research Seminar in Secondary Education I
EDSE 620 - Advanced Research Seminar in Secondary Education II
In addition, students who have not completed EDSE 503 and EDSE 504 (or equivalent) prior to admission are expected to take these courses as a component of their doctoral program.

Elective courses (15 units):

Five additional 3-unit courses are selected by the student in consultation with the program supervisor.
The number of Individual Study (EDSE 602 ) courses that can be taken is limited to 3 units per semester and 6 units per program.

Thesis

Registration in 900-level THES

Doctoral candidacy examination:

Students must prepare and orally defend a written candidacy paper outlining the proposed study and reviewing the relevant research and theory.

Final Doctoral Examination: Doctoral students must complete a thesis and this thesis must be successfully defended. See the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research’s website for information on required components and formatting of the thesis.

Ethics Requirement

Completion of Ethics training hours. Faculty ethics component (equivalent to 8 hours) through successful completion of EDSE 610 and EDSE 620 , plus FGSR component.

Residence Requirement

The minimum period of residency for the EdD program is 12 continuous months of full-time study at the University of Alberta. The PhD program requires two academic years of full-time attendance to meet the residence requirement.

Length of Program

The time taken to complete the EdD or PhD program will vary with the individual candidate. A minimum of two years of full-time study and research is usually required.

The maximum time to complete doctoral programs as set by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research is six years.