Students should become acquainted with the following documents.

• Doctor of Education Degree in Adult, Higher, and Community Education
• The Comprehensive Doctoral Exam in Adult, Higher, and Community Education
• Teachers College Doctoral Guidelines (http://www.bsu.edu/teachers/docguide/)
• Teachers College Suggested Dissertation Outline (http://www.bsu.edu/teachers/article/0,1371,99075-8318-19394,00.html)
• Teachers College Doctoral Forms and Appendices (http://www.bsu.edu/teachers/article/0,1371,99075-8318-34024,00.html)
• Graduate School General Statement for all Papers and Projects (http://www.bsu.edu/gradschool/guidelines/)
• Graduate School Forms (http://www.bsu.edu/gradschool/forms/)

Advisor

Students are not formally assigned an advisor for their doctoral program when they are admitted to the doctoral program. Instead, individual students and faculty members come to an agreement about advising. Students are encouraged to contact a faculty member near the end of their first year of study to see if the faculty member will agree to be his/her advisor. Students may change their advisor.

Doctoral Committee

The student and advisor work together to assemble a doctoral committee. The AHCE program director completes the “Recommendation for Assignments to Doctoral Committee” (appendix A of Teachers College doctoral forms) and sends it to the Assistant Dean of the Graduate School.

The doctoral committee generally has four graduate faculty members if the student has one cognate area, or five graduate faculty members if the student has two cognate areas. The committee is composed of the

• chair, the student’s advisor.
• departmental (i.e., program) representative, a member of the AHCE faculty.
• cognate representative(s), one per cognate.
• institutional representative, a graduate faculty member outside of the department of the program and outside of the department of the cognate. Technically, the graduate school chooses the institutional representative. However, students may request a specific faculty member to serve as the institutional representative.

A student may request a change membership on his/her Doctoral Committee.

Program Plan

Review the “Doctor of Education Degree in Adult, Higher, and Community Education” document. The student and advisor prepare a draft of the “Doctoral Degree Checksheet” (appendix B of Teachers College doctoral forms) for review by the doctoral committee. In a meeting where the program plan is reviewed, all doctoral committee members sign the form. A copy is sent to the graduate school. The student must have a minimum of 90 credit hours. 500 level courses cannot count toward the required 90 credit hours.

Up to one-half of the courses in each of the research, specialization, and cognate categories on the form can be transferred in. A course can fulfill more than one requirement. AHCE’s core and concentration areas comprise the area of specialization. Students must complete a 15 credit hour (over two consecutive semesters) residency requirement.

Students have seven years to complete the program, beginning from when they take the first course. For the time period to be extended for one year, the program chair must write a letter to the Graduate School. The first extension is usually not questioned by the Graduate School. Subsequent extensions are carefully reviewed.

Comprehensive Examinations

Review “The Comprehensive Doctoral Exam in Adult, Higher, and Community Education” document. EDHI 700 or EDAC 700 helps prepare students for comprehensive examinations. Four passes are required (i.e., written portion of major area by the chair and departmental representative, written portion of cognate area by the cognate representative(s), written portion by the doctoral committee, and the oral examination by the doctoral committee).

For the oral examination, the student is responsible for distributing copies of the comprehensive examinations to the Doctoral Committee. The departmental secretary (i.e., Denise Harris) schedules a two-hour meeting. It may be helpful to try to resolve major issues before the oral exam. The routine format for these oral examinations is as follows.

• A preliminary, closed meeting of the committee to discuss issues or concerns.
• A meeting of the committee and student. The written part of the comprehensive examinations serves as the basis for the discussion.
• A concluding, closed meeting where the committee votes. Three of the four, or four of the five, committee members must vote yes for a pass.

At the completion of the comprehensive examinations the “Status of Preliminary Written and Oral Examinations” (appendix E of Teachers College doctoral forms) is completed by the committee chair and sent to the Graduate School.

Dissertation
                                        
ID 705 helps students prepare a draft proposal. The student and advisor work together to get the proposal ready for the doctoral committee to review. When the proposal is ready, the student distributes it to committee members and then the committee meets to review, revise, and approve. Approval is granted on “Approval Form for Dissertation Proposal and Admission to Candidacy for the Doctoral Degree” (appendix F of Teachers College doctoral forms). Three of the four, or four of the five, committee members must sign the form.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval takes place after the approval of the proposal. If the student is gathering data, data should not be collected until IRB approval has been granted.

The student registers for DISS 799 (up to ten hours divided as the student wants) after approval of the proposal. Students can register for dissertation credit any time during a semester.

When the dissertation is completed and approved by the chair, the student distributes the dissertation to the doctoral committee members. The chair sets a two hour meeting. The “Announcement of Final Doctoral Examination” (appendix H of Teachers College doctoral forms) is posted. The routine format for the dissertation defense is as follows.

• A preliminary, closed meeting of the committee to discuss issues or concerns.
• A meeting of the committee and student.
• A concluding, closed meeting where the committee votes. Three of the four, or four of the five, committee members must vote yes for a pass.

The chair should bring to the dissertation defense one copy of the “Final Approval Form for Doctoral Candidates” (appendix I of Teachers College doctoral forms). The student should bring two copies of the dissertation signature page (the page immediately following the title page in the dissertation) on 20 pound cotton paper. When the dissertation is approved, original signatures of the Doctoral Committee are obtained on the final approval form and on both of the dissertation signature pages. The final approval form is then sent to the Graduate School with the dissertation.

Graduation

The student completes “Application for Graduation for Doctoral Students” (appendix J of Teachers College doctoral forms).

For additional information or an appointment contact:
Dr. Joseph L. Armstrong, Program Director
TC 814 Ball State University Muncie, IN 47306-0590
Phone: (765) 285-5460 Fax: (765) 285-5489
Email Contact